Something that I don't often stop to consider when I flick on a light switch, or turn on the heat in the winter, is: Where is my energy actually coming from? Okay so I realize that I'm using sources like electricity, coal, and oil, but where do we get that? I think if we all understood what these big corporations do to get their coal and oil we might all think twice about giving them our money.
When we pay for oil and coal, that money goes towards the destruction of the Appalachian mountains, and towards dictators, like Gaddafi in Libya. My Eco Rep class recently read and discussed articles about all of the corruption in our country's quest for energy. The articles are "Energy Casualties: How People are Dying for our Energy," by Craig Altemose and Rachel Soule, and "Moving Mountains," by Erik Reece. We purchase oil from countries that have very unjust systems, who we would not normally be dealing business with. For instance, Gaddafi used most of the money from the oil revenue to brutally oppress the people of his country. Thousands of Americans are killed in fuel supply convoys since we are dealing with such dangerous countries. As for the coal, we seem to have no limits when it comes to extracting it. Currently, the tops of the Appalachian mountains are being blown up for coal extraction. This affects the beauty of our environment, as well as the ecosystems, and even communities around the mountains. Over 700 miles of healthy streams have been buried with the waste from the mountaintop removal.
The article about Moving Mountains really frightened me; how could so much destruction be going on in my own country and I don't even know about it? What else are these big corporations keeping from us? I wanted to learn more about this, and below I will paste a link to a website from the Natural Resources Defense Council which has more information about the mountaintop removal in the Appalachian mountains.
http://www.nrdc.org/energy/coal/mtr/?gclid=CNSlg-SY_roCFag7OgodmEQAfA
This all sounds like a lot of scary and overwhelming information. It is, but we can still do something about it. Spreading the word, and getting more people to stand up to the oil and coal companies will put pressure on them to change, and slow down their destruction. I think we should organize predetermined days where for one whole day, nobody purchases gas for their cars or anything. If these organized protests can happen more often, the corporations will lose huge amounts of money, enough to make them listen.
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