Virtual flyover of mountaintop removal sites from KFTC Staff on Vimeo.

In the past KFTC has arranged chartered flights to show people the devastation of mountaintop removal from the air.  These flights can be difficult to arrange, and there are only a limited number seats available for these flights.  Now, however, with greater access to satellite imagery and virtual globes like Google Earth and NASA's World Wind we are able to show anyone the scale of the destruction of Appalachian mountains as if from the air and create informative maps by overlaying data, such as poverty rates, on-top of scaled maps of mountaintop removal mining sites. 

Our friends at Appalachian Voices have used these tools to create for us a virtual flyover.  This video will allow you to follow, step by step, the process of destroying a mountain.  After that, you'll see the enormous scale of this mining in Eastern KY, along with maps of biodiversity and different economic indicators. 

This is a great educational tool, and it will be included with updated versions of our slideshow on a DVD we'll be handing out to legislators when we are lobbying for the Stream Saver Bill.  So please, use these videos when talking with your friends and families about this issue, and help us spread the word about about our work in the General Assembly.