Maria Gunnoe at the mining site - Photo: Vivian Stockman, The Last Mountain
Local Community Takes on Big Coal

It’s a battle between a community and Big Coal. In the valleys of Appalachia, a community, with the help of outsiders, including Robert Kennedy, Jr., have been taking on the coal industry that has been blowing up and ripping down the mountains in search of coal. Ordinary people like Maria Gunnoe have taken up the cause.

This destructive form of mining is not only changing the landscape, destroying the mountains, it is also taking people’s lives and wrecking people’s health.

In a documentary, called The Last Mountain, David is taking on a Goliath – Big Coal. The industry has the money and the lobbying power to lean on the U.S. government to allow them to destroy the environment, damage communities and threaten lives.

As the description for the documentary puts it: The group argues that Mountain Top Removal-using dynamite to blast off a mountain’s surface-pollutes the air and water implicit in their neighbors’ deaths, eliminates traditional mining jobs and spreads pollution to other states. Despite support for their claims, Big Coal repeats Mountain Top Removal daily, amassing huge profits that allow their Washington lobbyists to wield influence in both political parties, rewrite environmental laws and avoid violations. The desire to stop Mountain Top Removal comes from a belief that we share responsibility for protecting the air and water; its what drives the group and their supporters from outside of Appalachia, like Robert Kennedy, Jr., to keep fighting.

According to the documentary maker, The Last Mountain honors ordinary Americans fighting for what they believe in, and shines a light on our energy needs and how those needs are being met. Their fight is for a future that affects us all.

The Last Mountain – Trailer

Check out The Last Mountain website.