MTR NOT "Sustainable"

Heartwood’s Andy Mahler submitted this letter to the editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal:

In a recent letter, J. Steven Gardner of Versailles (Ky.) offered his professional opinion, "as an engineer and scientist ... that mountaintop mining is one of the best examples of sustainable development in the region." If obliterating mountaintops and dumping the rubble into some of the most biologically diverse streams in America is "sustainable," then the word has lost all meaning. I have witnessed the devastation (yes, that is the right word) at first hand and consider it to be the most destructive peacetime activity in human history. Were this desecration of our land, our communities, and our heritage the work of a foreign power (rather than powerful corporations with friends in high places) it would rightly be considered an act of war. Tragically, it is just business as usual for Old King Coal."

Great letter, Andy! Letters to the editor are excellent tools – use them!