Up the Mountain No More - Mountain Top Removal

Last week, I picked up the recent issue of Vanity Fair because it featured Leonardo DiCaprio on the cover promoting his new global warming documentary, 11th Hour. I felt a little guilty, since I hadn't budgeted for it following my new TTMM lifestyle, but I decided it was a must-have for my coffee table, what with my renewed infatuation with Leo (I was completely crazy for him during the Titanic movie era) and increased concern in what's going on with our environment.

While I was going through the Green article and was flipping through the photos of all the environmental support groups, I turned to the picture of the Energy Action Coalition and there among the group was my uncle Peter. Astounded to see my uncle in Vanity Fair, I immediately picked up the phone and called him. After chiding him for not letting the family know about his brush with fame, he told me he was leaving that night to go out to Chicago where he was going to be going around to college campuses and also be taking part in a film documentary regarding the practice of Mountain Top Removal, which is the process of blowing up entire mountains to mine coal. Something we hear little about, but as you can see from the pictures, is destroying hundreds of acres of mountains across the U.S. It is not only devastating to the natural beauty of the mountainous areas, but also pollutes the rivers where they dump the sludge when they are done removing the coal.

It is outrageous and disturbing that this practice can be considered legal in the U.S.

I am very proud of my uncle and my cousin Ali, who just graduated from Western Washington, and is working with Restoring Eden, an organization founded by my uncle to focus on educating Christians to learn to love, serve, and protect God's creation, which is often overlooked and ignored when preaching about hell and condeming what is considered sin. Perhaps the evangelical leaders should focus less on the condemnation of sinners and more on the redemption of the earth in environmental terms by conservation and protection of nature. If not, we may very well find ourselves in hell on earth.