In April 2008, Restoring Eden led an educational road trip to West Virginia to study mountain top removal (MTR). Students from Eastern University, Calvin College, and Corban College piled into a van and toured around this historic coal region in order to get a handle on MTR, or “strip mining on steroids,” and its social, political, and economic costs. 
Throughout their tour, the students reflected on Christian responsibility in light of this violence. One evening they attended a prayer vigil and scripture reading with local believers on Gauley Mountain. From meeting with advocacy groups to homestays with affected residents, students learned the history and process of MTR. Since the 1970s, this devastating method has been exposing coal seams for quick extraction by first completely denuding mountaintops and then blowing them up, layer by layer, often altering the elevation by as much as 800 feet. What remains is shoved into adjacent valleys. Concerned only with short-term profit, the mining process buries streams, destroys forests, and decimates wildlife habitat on the mountains and in the valleys. Loss of vegetation naturally triggers erosion and landslides, contaminating streams with sedimentation and mining waste.
Residents are forced to deal with everything from muddy brown tap water to the possibility of floods and toxic slurry run-off from often precariously situated earthen dams. Debris from explosions is also a threat, and lung ailments from asthma to cancer are found in high concentrations in nearby communities. Illnesses among children are particularly pronounced. Proponents of MTR cannot even claim it creates jobs. In West Virginia alone, the transition from hundreds of miners underground to a small team equipped with a dragline and dump truck has meant 125,000 job in 1950 narrowing to 16,000 jobs in 2004. With fewer jobs and greater health risks for the larger community, parts of the region are emptying out and property values are plummeting.
As part of their journey, these students traveled from the hollows of Appalachia to the halls of power in D.C. in an effort to connect coal mining and environmental justice. Lobbying followed over HR 2169, the Clean Water Protection Act, which would halt the dumping of mining waste into waterways, thus restoring the Clean Water Act’s original intent. In addition to policy shifts, students also realized that education of the public is crucial. Another part of the solution is practical lifestyle shifts—energy conservation and research into and increased use of renewable energy sources.
Herein lies the hope in the heartbreak. Faithful Christians have the opportunity to respond to a biblical mandate to care for people and the earth, and with prayer and participation, help ignite a movement for shalom in this historic and beautiful part of North America.