The fight against Big Coal and mountaintop removal has heated up this year. While communities are resisting coal-fired power plants from coast to coast, Appalachian groups are rising up in West Virginia to be a wrench in the gears of mining companies like Massey Energy.

This year 5 actions have happened in West Virginia already with more to come as a mountain defense camp, organized by Climate Ground Zero, has sprung up at the base of Coal River Mountain. Like Earth First! base camps that fought logging in the Pacific Northwest during the 80’s and 90’s, this camp promises to stand up to the destruction of the Appalachian mountain at the hands of greedy coal companies using mountaintop removal.

While beltway groups lobby and fight over the industrial giveaways to corporations in the climate bill, and Obama’s EPA continues to act like Bush’s EPA, many will descend on Appalachia this summer to resist mountaintop removal.

Today, Mountain Justice Summer camp has started in southern West Virginia. From there, Climate Ground Zero will do actions all summer long in the hills and hollers of Appalachia.

Here’s the call to action:

NATIONAL CALL TO JOIN A MOUNTAIN DEFENSE CAMP TO STOP THE DESTRUCTION OF THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS

This summer, join Climate Ground Zero at a Mountain Defense Camp in the Coal River Valley of southern West Virginia to stop mountaintop removal.

We’ve lobbied, we’ve marched, we’ve organized in our communities and we’ve taken direct action on a multitude of opportunities, but now we need to continue that struggle by establishing a sustained presence at the doorstep of one of the worst environmental atrocities in recent history.

Mountaintop removal is an obscene practice that literally blows the tops off of mountains to get at seams of coal. The resulting destruction is wrecking Appalachian eco-systems, waterways, communities and cultural traditions. Massey Energy and other coal companies dominate the physical and economic landscape of Appalachia, but a coalition of environmentalists, students, local communities and ordinary people from around the country have joined together to end the coal industries stranglehold on Appalachia.
This summer, we will work together to defeat Massey Energy and other so-called mining firms who blow up mountains rather than actually mine.

This summer, activists plan to shut down mountaintop removal sites on an ongoing basis. We plan to coordinate and carry out actions from May until August. But need your help. We need you and your affinity group to join us. If you don’t have an affinity group, come anyway and we’ll form them up as the summer progresses.

Non-violence training, camp space and other support will be provided. Please contact us if you’re interested in participating.

WHAT: Coal River Mountain Defense Camp
WHERE: Coal River Valley, West Virginia
WHEN: late May until August 31
CONTACT: climategroundzero@gmail.com 304-854-7372
INFO: http://www.climategroundzero.org