Next Event:

Speaker Larry Gibson on Mountaintop Removal

Co-Sponsored with SEAC

Tuesday September 27, 2011 – Strafford Room – 7pm

Larry Gibson will be coming to discuss the effects of mountaintop removal, a devastating method of coal extraction.

“Larry Gibson has lived on Kayford Mountain in West Virginia all of his life. The property he owns, a few acres with several small buildings and the family cemetery, is the only green spot amidst a desolate landscape. He refuses to sell to any coal company and leave his home, though his land has rich beds of coal beneath it. This refusal comes at a cost. Miners, told that Gibson’s decision not to sell is an attempt to put them out of work, have shot at his very modest home (where bullet holes are visible as evidence), and set fire to another building. Two of his dogs were killed, and he was run off the road in his truck. The stress of living in these conditions has taken its toll on his marriage; still, he won’t give in, saying, “If I stopped fighting for the land maybe we’d have a chance. But this is my heritage. How can I walk away from that?”

http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/pgs/portraits/Larry_Gibson.php

View more information about mountaintop removal here.