Beehive Artist Collective lecture at MTSU April 1, 2010

MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL: THE TRUE COST OF COAL



A high energy, interactive, graphic-based picture-lecture that speaks to the overwhelming and complex picture of globalization, militarization, and resource extraction, as well as the small-scale changes and actions we can undertake to build another world!



WHEN: April 1st @ 6:00 P.M.

WHERE: MTSU BAS State Farm Room (S102)

WHAT: MTSU Student Programming hosts an interactive presentation about resource extraction in Appalachia



Long exploited as a resource-extraction colony within the US, the

Appalachian Mountains are home to a fight for survival whose outcome will determine, in part, the industrial power of this country. Without coal there would be no 'cheap' electricity. Today’s energy corporations and government bodies are continuing to show the extent of their violence and greed as they push their extractive agendas in the “New Coal Rush.”



Our insatiable demand for cheap power has lead to the most extreme and devastating form of coal mining yet, Mountaintop Removal (MTR). The TRUE COST OF COAL graphic uses MTR in Appalachia as a lens through which to understand the historical and contemporary story of ENGERY, RESOURCE EXTRACTION and of AMERICAN EMPIRE accelerating throughout the world.



We will expose the DECEPTIONS of CLEAN COAL technologies and bring to light the ensuing CLIMATE CHAOS facing the world today.



With a gigantic portable mural-in-process teeming with intricate images of plants and animals from the most bio-diverse temperate forest on the planet, the Bees will share (and seek) stories of how coal mining and Mountaintop Removal affect communities and ecosystems throughout Appalachia and beyond.



This graphic also looks to the future, raising questions about resistance, regeneration, and remediation while celebrating stories of struggle from mountain communities. The TRUE COST OF COAL will challenge all of us who casually flip on a light switch to examine our own connections to MTR- and to think about what we can do to stop it from within our own communities.



Learn more about this graphics campaign-in-process as it unfolds at: beehivecollective.blogspot.com.