This blog post killed a three year old little boy.
This past week I took the time to research where the energy I use in my house comes from. I don’t know why, but I was shocked to discover that the energy I use is connected to mountaintop removal. Mountaintop removal is a destructive form of coal mining in which entire mountains are literally blown up. This process is devastating hundreds of square miles of Appalachia; polluting the headwaters of rivers that provide drinking water to millions of Americans; and destroying a distinctly American culture that has endured for generations. I knew about the evils of mountaintop removal, but for some reason I though that I wasn’t affected by it in this area of the country. But apparently Austin Energy obtains some of its energy from coal “mined” through mountaintop removal in Black Mountain, VA. The strip mining in this area is responsible for the 2004 death of three-year-old Jeremy Davidson. He was asleep in his bed when a half-ton boulder plummetted off the mountain and flattened a path directly across his bed. He died instantly. So whether I like it or not, creating this blog post on my laptop connects me to the death of this child.
What’s difficult here is that Austin Energy is fairly advanced in its goals for increasing its percentages of clean energy. It is leading the way in resourcing wind energy and provides amazing rebates to homeowners wanting to install solar panels on their homes. We were at Home Depot this past weekend and stopped to chat with the rep at the solar panel info table. Installing solar panels in Austin is probably one of the most cost effective and easy places in the country to do so. That said, we still don’t have a spare $25,000 upfront cash sitting around to do it.
It’s frustrating. I can’t afford to take the major steps to change the system, so I let three-year-olds pay the ultimate price? Okay, it’s more than frustrating – it seriously pisses me off. I hate having no choice but to be complicit in injustice knowing that there is little I can do to change the situation. So at this point I need to see hope in the $20 billion of the stimulus package going to green energy technology. I know it doesn’t solve all the problems – like how some things like mountaintop removal should just be illegal. But if the system is too big for me to effectively take responsibility for my actions, I respect it when the system itself takes steps towards responsibility.
At least it’s a start.