We know that young Kentuckians care deeply about our mountains and mountain communities. This year, we wanted to make sure their voices were heard loud and clear at Kentuckians For The Commonwealth’s 5th Annual Louisville Loves Mountains Festival on Friday, May 17, 2013. We asked young people to share their written thoughts and ideas for a brighter future for our mountains. Dozens of youth from across Louisville wrote essays on the topic, “Why we need to protect our mountains and mountain communities."
The three winning essays were displayed during Louisville Loves Mountains Festival. The young authors were also recognized during the festivities and presented with prizes by essay contest judge Carol Besse, co-owner of Carmichael's Bookstore. Heine Brother’s Coffee and Carmichael's Bookstore donated prizes and the winners also received a Louisville Loves Mountains Festival t-shirt. The winning essays are featured below.
Avona Brisbon, Grand Prize Winner
Age 15
Western High School
The Dangers To Come
Every forest is a home to something. Whether it’s a home to a human or animal, it’s still a home. So why are we cutting down these forest and decreasing the chances of survival of other species? How would you like it if someone came to your house with a bulldozer and demolished your home? Because that is exactly what we are doing to other species when we go to mountains and forests and claim our ownership. Instead of killing them, we need to protect our mountains and our mountain communities.
Protecting our mountains may seem to be a very hard thing to do, but if you do small steps, like learning why you should protect them, then everything else should be a piece of cake. Natural Ecology is the study of environmental problems. Research shows that due to the increasing amount of trees being cut down, many animals are being forced to leave their habitat. Which then affects the interactions between nature and animals, because when you disrupt an ecosystem, you are also disrupting; the food chain, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, and water cycle of that ecosystem. When you force something out of its ecosystem, it will not be able to function and work together with its new founded habitat, which makes this an environmental problem. The only way to fix this is to stop cutting down trees and destroying mountains and find a new resource to use. You might not be able to see it now, but what will the world look like when all the trees are gone and the mountains are bare? It won’t be a pretty sight at all! In the children’s book, “The Lorax”, by Dr. Seuss, the Truffala Forest was demolished and the animals were forced to leave their home. Do you want to see that happen in reality? Well, that’s the path we are headed on. It will end up as a tragedy, one we won’t be able to fix.
Mountain communities are not just a community of people, but also communities of other species. If we continue to destroy our mountains and forests, there will be no such thing as mountain community.
In order to main sustainability, we as humans need to begin looking at what we are doing to our environment, and how it will affect the future of our world. You don’t have to be the most environmentally-friendly person to start doing things to protect our world. If you just pay attention to what you are doing, and what you are affecting, then you will make a habit out of doing better things for the environment. Unlike to characters in Garrett Hardin’s The Tragedy of the Commons, you can become more aware, and make a difference in the world.
In the documentary, Sludge, By Robert Salyer, people were destroying our mountains to mine coal. That itself is already bad for the environment. To top it off, the waste after washing the coal was, and still is being stored in sludge ponds. There are many problems with this being done. One is the sludge, the waste, is very toxic and deadly to any species exposed to it. Another is it’s damaging our environmental health. There have been many sludge dams collapsing. When the sludge dam in Buffalo Creek collapsed, in 1972, 125 people lost their lives. But still, there aren’t enough people stepping up to make change.
Environmental Justice is in place to make sure everyone, no matter your race, color, national origin or income, is following environmental laws, regulations, and policies. But why isn’t mountain top mining and sludge ponds being outlawed yet, especially after all that had taken place because of it? The answer is because there isn’t enough people standing up to make a change.
After all this, there isn’t a change yet. Animals are still losing their homes, and our mountains are still being destroyed! You’ve taken the first step by becoming more knowledgeable about it. Now all you have to do is start making small changes. Because if a lot of people make a small change, then it turns into a big change. And now, we can start protecting our mountains and mountain communities.
Ike Harrell, Runner-Up Ages 5-10
Age 9
Bloom Elementary
The Lorax
If the Lorax were here, what would he say? What would he say when he saw all the mountains going away? He would look at Coal Companies and say, “Why are you blowing the mountains away?”
The Coal Company would say, “To make money, and profit.” The Lorax would say, “Why are you doing that, you really should stop it.” The Coal Company would ask for good reasons, “Why should we stop?” The Lorax would say, “Because it’s clogging the river and smogging the air. It’s killing the trees. And its make people sick - not just sneeze! Get solar panels now. It will help with your bill and not make mountains topless.
So if you do what I say, you will be happy. If you start right away.”
Bennett Eng, Runner-Up Ages 11-14
Age 13
Kentucky Country Day School
Mountaintop Removal
Mountaintop removal is a very destructive process that drastically changes the landscape and does significant damage to the environment. This process literally removes the top of millenniaold mountaintops in the search for coal. This not only destroys the mountain and adversely affects the environment, it also impacts the biodiversity of the region. In Appalachia, coal mining is an important part of the economy. Many families depend on the coal industry for their livelihood, but the destruction that mountaintop removal causes should be reason enough to stop the practice.
There are three main steps of mountaintop removal, which are all bad to the environment and the community. Step one is removing the mountaintop. This process completely destroys the vegetation on the mountain and all habitats, for wildlife and people. Step two is removing the coal with trucks. The heavy trucks pollute the air with their exhaust. The third step is the filling up of the mountain with rocks and dirt. This strategy of filling in the mountain with rocks and dirt can cause harm to water sources by contaminating streams and resulting in toxic, unusable water sources. The resulting erosion occurs and can do irreversible damage to the land.
The communities in the mountains also are impacted by this mining. While money gained from working in the coal business helps families earn a living in fact according to the appalachian voices, “Mountaintop removal mining is designed to remove the miner from the process, replacing manpower with machinery, and lowering the coal companies’ overhead cost.” Ultimately mountaintop removal is destructive to the coal families as well.
Mountaintop removal also is a problem for the biodiversity on the mountain. These mountains are stripped of all of their vegetation. Survival of animal populations due to the destruction of habitats is imminent. Many tree species are also endangered by mountaintop removal. Trees are removed and usually burned or illegally dumped in valleys where they are left to rot. This impact on the environment is so significant that is will take 100 years or more to restore vital forests.
The impact on the Appalachian community is enormous and mountaintop removal destroys everything in its path. This environment is unique and we need to protect these mountains. Appalachia is filled with wildlife and the natural beauty of the landscape. Mountaintop removal is a threat to all of Appalachia and it should be stopped
Work Cited:
"Ecological Impacts of Mountaintop Removal « Appalachian Voices."Appalachian Voices. N.p., n.d.Web. 3 May 2013. <http://appvoices.org/endmountaintopremoval/ecology/>.
"Center for Biological Diversity." Center for Biological Diversity. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2013. <http://www.biologicaldiversity.org>.
"US Environmental Protection Agency."US Environmental Protection Agency. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2013. <http://www.epa.gov>.
