The shocking danger of mountaintop removal -- and why it must end | Michael Hendryx

[@CybranM]

Good talk, I had no idea mountaintop removal was even a thing.

[@zephyr5802]

CybranM Drive out to the Appalachian Mountains and then go to the Rocky Mountains where they are doing almost the exact same thing, I love the Rockies it’s disgusting seeing the coal trains leaving the Rockies.

[@mikedineen7857]

It is a horrible practice that happens only in small areas of WV, VA & KY. No other states would let them tear up the state like that.

[@askme8592]

Love this. All my family is from mining areas and some are miners. Health issues are abound. I live downwind from that stuff and have many related health issues miners do and I'd never do that work. Amazing video. Downloading this one to keep.

[@MichaelBerthelsen]

Ask Me Don't keep it, spread it far and wide...😊

[@Rickbearcat]

You need to be voting in lawmakers that will change this practice. Permanently. And get your neighbors to do the same. Only the people making a change, in mass, can affect this problem. You know that the mining companies own your state. Change that.

[@askme8592]

I have zero desire or drive to use a broken system to change things. Hence why I'm in the process of immigrating from this backwards country. None are perfect by any means, but I'll take a lesser broken country any day.

[@Rickbearcat]

You might be one of the fortunate ones that are able to actually leave a dangerous place to improve your health and well being. And you might only be 1 of 100 or 1000 that can do this. I am happy that you can do this, but you are leaving many behind you who can't. I would feel some sort of guilt moving; even though I'm doing the right thing by my family. Not only am I leaving behind those who can't move for whatever reason, but I can't control what the companies do with the actual land they destroy once I've left. The value of a vista can, at times, be priceless. There are tough choices to be made. I can not fault you for wanting to strive for a better life.

[@askme8592]

Eh, I agree not everyone could, but for a lot it's a personal choice. Do you leave everything you've ever known and the culture you're comfortable with along with family and friends only to live a possibly shorter life or with more health problems than would happen naturally, or do you work hard as possible to go to a safe place to be? I personally will be leaving behind a LOT of family, spread all over the east coast, along with all my favorite places. Am I happy about that? No, of course not. But the pros involved in immigrating for health and safety reasons (private stuff) outweigh the negative of not living near my relatives. I wish more could get to a better place where the environment isn't tainted with health effecting pollution, though I don't feel any guilt about it though. It's their choice to stay in areas like that because of family/familiarity/heritage/etc.

[@miked9126]

Who else felt the bottom of their stomach drop out when this information hit home?

[@tdreamgmail]

Mike D Did you vote republican?

[@evanli421]

@@tdreamgmail chill, guy's probably not american

[@Lemonducky86]

I don't know when our species is going to get it together and realize that, if we continue like this, we're going to wipe ourselves out

[@aavnpn]

Lemonducky most already know. The problem is greed. We have people in power who will work against their best interest and those of their citizens as long as they're getting money from lobby groups.

[@ol-man-duffyj688]

Cronos is the solution. 😉

[@Lemonducky86]

I hope you're not right, but I suspect that you are... in which case we need to do a 1000% better job voting as a species

[@cstudi]

Money is the root of all evil.

[@ObsidiaBeast]

Americans and muslim countrys do that anyays^^

[@ritamariekelley4077]

Thank You, Michael Hendryx, for having the courage and the integrity to speak out about corporate greed and human suffering.

[@a7i20ci7y]

I'm from eastern Tennessee and I hate MTR. It's like throwing paint on the Mona Lisa, to say nothing of the environmental and public health consequences. It needs to end.

[@richardl1708]

Its fucking ridiculous that this still goes on

[@sophiewang8157]

I’m learning all about coal mining and mountaintop removal in school

[@loukas371]

What an enlightening and inspiring talk. We should pressure our governments to acknowledge these issues and do something about them instead of seeking short term profit.

[@AMI12349]

Great video, but the subtitles are not matching in time with the narration! As far as the content, to me it seems just simple, basic common sense that, if you spend most of your life walking around underground in a mine, rather than above ground breathing fresh air as human beings are meant to, you would get problems with your lungs! And that those problems would extend to your family members also, especially if the water in the area is also contaminated, and adding also the effects of the special chemicals used in the mining process. Besides environmental, health, and labor issues, one more bad effect of this mountaintop removal is that it makes the area unusable for other future economic purposes, such as tourism, fishing, and out-of-town leadership camps, that remote mountain areas are often good for. Once the coal is extracted and used, it is gone, but these other industries can go on potentially indefinitely into the future. I got interested in this issue recently from reading a 2002 Robert Tannenbaum novel, ABSOLUTE RAGE, involving a husband-and-wife lawyer team solving a murder case in which a miner labor leader and his family members are murdered by a wealthy criminal gang, but the blame and arrest are put on a young, retarded boy. I have been lucky enough to spend most of my life in beautiful, natural mountain areas where the environment has not been destroyed by coal mining, such as the North Georgia Mountains (where I grew up), the Sri Lankan Hill Country, and now Northern Thailand.

[@Aaryq]

"Clean" coal

[@RalphInRalphWorld]

Cubicle Bear It's very clean! I hear they wash each piece with soap and very hot water!

[@davisjames8484]

Cubicle Bear you should look up how they mine the precious metals for solar panels lol

[@zephyr5802]

James Davis Everything will have a detriment to the environment until it can be improved upon with renewable/environmentally friendly alternatives through continued research but the impact of solar panels is much greater than that of continued use of coal, I can’t tell you the impact of the mining for the minerals that make up the panels. To be quite honest I have not got the time to research it inform me on how bad it is but I do believe that it in many cases is done more properly with higher regulations than that of MTR.

[@MindAnimations]

Devastating and important... just because you don’t live in these communities doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know everyone needs to wake up. I am so sad that folks allow this to continue. The future is watching and listening, time to WAKE UP

[@SilverWolf5636]

yet how do you expect those without integrity to respect those whom do have it?

[@Australian_Lady]

Prevail we must. Awareness is key.

[@rozniyusof2859]

People think of coal mining like it involves thousands of miners working underground, like it used to be a century ago. So they think coal mining still provides a lot of jobs for small towns. But mining isn't like that anymore. The technology changed. It's now a bunch of engineers with lots of explosives and huge machines. It doesn't provide entire towns with jobs anymore. So all the rhetoric about bringing back coal mining to create jobs makes less sense. Those little towns aren't getting any of those jobs.

[@msavina9129]

Rozni, Reply to your 11 month old post: I was born n raised in Southern WV, and mtn top removal has only been around in Appalachia since approx 2000. My Gma had 16 kids, Gpa worked the mines his entire life, he died of black lung, tho he did live to be 72. That’s old for a coal miner. But many of my uncles and uncles by marriage went in the mines at some point in their lives. Even my Gpa from my dad’s side did it for a while. They are still doing underground mining; in 2010 that big explosion happened n killed 29 miners, bodies never recovered-mine got shut down. It was bc they were intentionally not following safety standards, the CEO got 1yr in jail-should have gotten life in prison imo. You are right about the mtn top removal and how it takes very few to get the job done, but MTR is not exclusive. I really dunno why ‘coal is dead’ but WV’s population has shrunk over the last 50-70yrs bc of it. So it will never boom again, which has turned bustling towns into ghost towns. Two of my nephews were talking about going in the mines a cpl yrs ago until I talked some sense into them. Tho you can still run into the occasional unmistakable mine worker (the black around the eyes or blk soot all over the face) in WalMart or a convenience store. Mining has been a way of life in WV for generations. There are billboard signs off the interstate that say, “coal, it turns the lights on.” The mtns had to be blasted to build the interstates, it looks like God took a giant serrated knife n cut the mtn out, you can see the black coal seam as you drive. It looks almost like a 700’ wall on a 75 degree angle. Coal is embedded in WV history. Don Blankenship, the CEO of that mine that exploded, and who served a yr in jail, ran for Senate in 2018. Jim Justice-the billionaire who owns Bluestone Coal Corp, among 90+ other companies is the governor. Im sure these politicians are who Ted talk was referring to-denying the costs to health n environment from MTR. WV has an awful history and not much has changed. 🙂

[@aerofpv2109]

Great scientist with the truth to be shown for human history.

[@Hedgpig]

It should end because it's called "mountaintop removal," it's like if there was something called "the rainbow extinction program."

[@taisnunez274]

How do we stop this? Especially when the people who are affected are so misrepresented?

[@williamchamberlain2263]

Tais Nuñez call your senator, write to your senator, turn up to hand petitions to your senator (and other representatives): it's how the NRA influence state legislators, and it can work for you too.

[@MetallicReg]

The sad war of ideology and rationality is still ongoing, although some people are brave enough to use the relative definition of a "modern, civilized society". We need to fight ideology to the end and never forget that it was always a primitive, temporal tool to begin with.

[@johns294]

Average age of death for a coal minor who starts in their teens is 52.....They get em early with “Great” pay for relatively uneducated people in small towns .

[@premm23]

The only solution I see is education in human values ... lack of integrity is rampant - sigh ... may we educate our children in values and let them listen to their heart

[@williamchamberlain2263]

Start picking up the tailings and tipping them out on the grass in front of the state court houses.

[@Dispatern]

or on Trump's favorite golf course

[@NChambernator]

Great TED talk!

[@coltbolt101]

It's very depressing to see my homeland being utterly destroyed by the greed of a few for the gain of short term profit. We must resist. We must sow fear into those of power. Montani Semper Liberi!

[@DataStorm1]

Reminds me of Tsjernobyl, ppl living in that town next to it claim there is NO radiation etc

[@Jemalacane0]

There is radiation in Chernobyl, but there are places on earth with higher natural background radiation. A great deal of the shorter-lived, more dangerous isotopes are gone or soon will be.

[@peacefulbenevolenttree3004]

Really sad. It's like money and wealth is more important than lives and well being.

[@Jemalacane0]

Money and wealth enrich lives. I say this as someone who wants coal-fired generation terminated world wide.

[@SargeantPrepper]

Sega in the genesis games should've made a Mountaintop Removal Zone in which botniks and Robotnik are running an MTR site.

[@hald64]

As long as we allow corporate donations to politicians, this problem will never go away. Nobody wants to to cut the branch on which they are sitting. We have seen it with the tobacco industry for the last century, and it's the same problem here.

[@daddyquatro]

The reason there are corporate donations to politicians is because politicians have power over corporations. It's a chicken and egg thing.

[@ThinkingAvidly]

The snow was grey and almost black in areas this winter in places down wind from these "mines"

[@theslimeylimey]

Interesting talk thank you.

[@Velzen5]

So much for "Beautifull clean coal"

[@blue_tetris]

But how else are Americans' grandchildren going to dig up the cutting-edge energy source of the future: Coal!

[@irvgeezy]

Very interesting reality we live in

[@me-df9re]

Where are the people that complain that the video is not about tech entertainment design? For some reason they don't complain that in every video that does not have these 3 element. Because this video is also not about tech, but environment and a change that is needed. I am not complaining, just pointing out the bias of youtube commenters.

[@KonniWynn]

also this destroys the nature upon the mountains

[@jedfra9172]

@Ted Hill Muppet

[@Bmxae]

This is important

[@tedspens]

Gotta bring back those mining jobs! Yep, all 28 or so of them.

[@ol-man-duffyj688]

I can see reading this guy is missing in a few years by uncovering this. Can’t wait for the documentary on Netflix.

[@mayratrevino1824]

Humanitys purpose is to be earths immune system! Clean rivers oceans and flourishing forest. We know how to do this and it will benefit us also. Why we dont all push for this obvious goal is beside me :(

[@smiley7083]

This reminds me of the videos I’ve seen of gold mining. 😢

[@Rickbearcat]

The mining companies, in reality, own the states they work in. Laws are regulated and enacted to be favorable to these mining companies. I don't know the attitudes of the people that live in these states or those that live a mile or two from one of these work sites. But, the people have the power here to vote in those lawmakers that can end this practice. So, people of these states, get into that voting booth and do the right thing for your families and the natural beauty and preservation of your states.

[@celestialcircledance]

I was relieved he didn't say my state but after the mountain tops are removed they'll have to exploit new territories .

[@Jake-rs9nq]

Your state might not have recoverable coal assets. Hopefully it does not.

[@Blakhawk1703]

#MountainLivesMatter

[@peterfuchs6176]

Good job America

[@CusterDawg]

Oh snap it’s like that Lissie song “mountaintop removal shames our name”

[@sizanogreen9900]

Sigh... this is making me feel sad. I wish I had been born a few hundred years in the future. Maybe stuff would be better...

[@Derpster2493]

They should drag the mountains into the ocean and blow them up underwater. Less air pollution.

[@LeonidasGGG]

What this guy needs is a movie. Hollywood? ;) ;) ;)

[@slikrx]

Call John Oliver and get him on board.

[@JustOneAsbesto]

"Money money money" - ABBA

[@asmaal-arnaouti7329]

But prevail we will.

[@asadullakhan8876]

please add Urdu subtitles

[@buybuydandavis]

"The Science is Settled!"

[@Extort713]

Why are we still using coal or oil....................... this world is the wrong one.

[@Jemalacane0]

Oil is used for a lot of things, including the device you posted that with.

[@silviosantapaola2825]

the world is a mess lets change that

[@relaxing--music-]

hi

[@nicosmind3]

Anime Turkey Hey :)

[@holdmybeer]

high

[@TomasFrankovich]

Cerulean Mountain Trust

[@shivadhanush8805]

Commenting before watching the video

[@holdmybeer]

but we need coal for Trumps Christmas stocking.

[@MIXSTIX]

LEAST amount of views , i agree

[@urfavoritehumanbean879]

hmmm yes im gonna watch a video about why obliterating a fucking mountain is bad 🤔🤔🤔 that should help me

[@Jemalacane0]

Nuclear now! No more excuses! No more bullshit!

[@JogBird]

America

[@markvietti]

I have never known a single American who drinks tap water

[@AkumaTheNameless]

Coal is a cheap way to create energy for developing countries... but the U.S.A. is rich enough that is could change their energy sources. But trump wants to keep coal mining industry alive.

[@ChimpyChamp]

Trump Trump Trump...What did Obama do about this during his presidency??

[@AkumaTheNameless]

lol clam down. I was talking about current events. Trump doubled down on coal did you check the elections?

[@nicosmind3]

Whatever happened to property rights and fear of prosecution?

[@NotQuiteFirst]

government happened

[@gyneve]

Legal corporate lobbying happened.

[@MeleeTiger]

Fuckin' America at it again...

[@mangomak1342]

Just because there isn't evidence (data) of harm doesn't mean something isn't dangerous. We can't take risks on our own species????

[@daddyquatro]

Without watching the video... I'll guess 2:30 for CLIMATE CHANGE.!

[@Lostpanda123]

Not that surprising when the majority of the US citizens believe that the earth is flat.

[@tamarajessup1398]

Lumian Go away, troll, you bother me.

[@lilcolgatevert3715]

*Bro*

[@marko5766]

There are real concerns with MTR coal mining, but all credibility is lost when the speaker exaggerates by a factor of 10. According to the US gov't 2017 numbers, over 30% of electricity is generated by coal, not the 3% stated. Just because TED is considered an accurate source does not mean that the speakers are not full of crap. Do your own research to verify claims!

[@sirchasm1625]

I think he's saying 3% comes from coal mining via MTR in these areas, not across the US.

[@storyspren]

That's not his claim. That 3% is MTR-mined coal specifically.

[@Sheeshening]

Mark-O for 0 iq points

[@sophocles3557]

18th