that's blanketed moscow finally lives but the record he did have shows no signs of relenting hundreds of wildfires still burning in western and central russia with flames now reaching areas contaminated by the sheer noble nuclear disaster officials say not to panic as the pollution remains deep in the soil offers of help and condolence have been pouring in from across the globe. and as russia struggles with the fire and drought the country's grain exports been temporarily halted to secure domestic needs there's fears that more crops could be lost to the flames in the heat that's prompted a global prompted global grain prices to skyrocket meanwhile millions in india are going hungry while stocks rot in temporary storage. and al qaeda could be making a comeback in iraq by attracting former u.s. sympathizers but the promise of high pay they're now believed to be targeting the sunni group aligned that aligned itself with coalition forces during the two thousand and three conflict militia leaders say al qaeda is capitalizing on u.s. troop withdrawal and continued political instability there. coming up next we'll

look at how mountaintop removal mining has affected local communities and critics say become one of the worst environmental catastrophes in u.s. history stay with us on r.t. . on the day of this interview the small creek less than one mile from their home flows black and i it's not normal that's coming from an abandoned home on drugs come from sorry pot. and i don't know. what to expect. out caught. maybe a few more years. and my health this went down tremendously. and i don't ever look to be helpful as i don't have all of the time not bankers in vain if i can do it help me. that are only thing i want now i want a good moral i want them to quit the pump and are quitting jade and whatever

they're doing i want them to quit that. and. it's all mob to me bad. for the last twenty years. and hard. you can't make it without good water. from. the. booze. currently there are over one hundred forty billion gallons of coal slurry contained in more than one hundred lb ments in west virginia alone the total quantity of coal slurry in the rest of southern appalachians. on december twenty second two thousand and eight acall ash impoundment at the tennessee valley authorities kingston fossil plant failed when an earthen dike broke spilling over

one point one billion gallons of coal ash sludge over three hundred acres. coal ash sludge has waste created from the burning of coal at the kingston coal plant and is believed to contain toxic compounds including arsenic and mercury. the tennessee valley authority has meets the cost of the cleanup over eight hundred twenty five million dollars this spill is ten times larger than the exxon valdez spill in alaska and is believed to be america's largest environmental disaster to date we're throwing away the next generation's most valuable resource and that is water and one of the best sources of water anywhere in the world and maybe the best source of freshwater in proximity to one of the world's largest fastest growing populations. you know with all the and all the lawsuits and all the carrying on that goes on in the in the press and you know the vanity fair's and in the u.s.

news and world reports and all at that where the authors are warning people to believe that that we're absolutely scrip in appalachia down to nothing. in order to get the mineral is patently untrue it's patently untrue when you look around at the forested melton's that we have a recent environmental impact statement from the e.p.a. estimates over eight hundred square miles of mountains of already been destroyed this includes the permanent destruction of over four hundred fifty individual mountain summits across the region the report also indicates the permanent loss of over twelve hundred miles of mountain streams. although federal regulations for mine reclamation require that mountaintop removal sites be returned to their original contour these mines are routinely granted wavers mined areas are typically graded and then hydro seeded with less bodies or grass which clings to the

compacted shale and rock that now makes up the topsoil nature builds soil for free but she creates the soil very slowly and so you're talking about thousands of years to go from something like a rock mass that has essentially no soil just a very thin covering up to generate a few centimeters of soil you're talking about hundreds to thousands and tens of thousands of years continuing at its present rate the projected loss from mountaintop removal mining is one point four million acres in the next decade an area equal in size to the state of delaware. by the summer of two thousand and six ed wiley has formulated a new plan for pennies a promise. our government or a local school board state school board will do it in a way it shows and you know and parents and grandparents it's up to you to get this job for the kids you know we're going to money for school one warrior and the other

. like we all go to school in our community and. it's rich it's showing that our government should come to this if we can't get nothing done for children to. be. if. we're going to watch the trolls on west virginia the worse we do you see you all know this is the rise awareness and raise money for new school it also opens a lot of doors and applying to chapman in our communities as far as mountaintop removal what it's doing to those in in in the mining industry to our community this was a perfectly viable what what it actually doing to our children the governor made a statement our kids are our future they are to morrow he should die are almost up and more are geared to march fourth don't have them all. live at least some of.

these. burning of coal those for over a century has been one of the most deadly things that and humans have done it through the air around them even after one hundred years of burning coal and after one hundred years of so-called improvement of air quality according to the american lung association twenty four thousand people a year still die prematurely from air pollution from coal plants in the united states almost forty percent of the carbon dioxide emissions come from coal one of the things that has to happen. is that the politicians the leaders of the administration as well as congress state legislators and administrations in the states all those leaders have got to finally say ok we want to call in the two thousand election and west virginia was widely credited with giving. president bush the margin he needed to take the oval office was the first time the west virginia

had gone republican in something like seventy years and guess what's going to happen come november we're going to carry the state of west virginia thank. the coldest it was widely credited for giving bush west virginia so it's no secret that he had a a large debt to pay to the coal industry and they made sure he paid it throughout mine safety throughout the rollback of regulations on dirty power plants through a variety of places he essentially stocked all the regulatory agencies with with former coal industry lobbyists or executives by two thousand and one the bush administration made a swipe wording changing the clean water act designating waste as a bill this wording change cleared the way for the expansion of mountaintop removal mining throughout southern appalachians. on january twenty second of two thousand and two president bush returned to west virginia it is such

a wonderful day for us and for west virginia to host a special me with those with a special bond to our state please and gentlemen the president of the united states i'm. we can do a better job in america one of these days we're going to be driving you know automobiles that are fueled differently and that's going to be exciting times for america and we're just new technologies coming down and we can encourage those technologies. so conservation technological development got to be an integral part of energy but folks we need more supply you know workers walk in back here in the back and he said i'm real repairing a machine that digs for gold. we need to use coal we've got a lot of it and we need to make sure that we. were the. weight around that.

for the past twenty years larry gibson and his family have been fighting to preserve their ancestral home place on kafer down outside charleston west virginia and when i met with a cold coming to my property hear me i'm not family members and they tell me that we don't give a damn about people who carry cholera we don't give a damn about the people and how that mountain all we care about is profit we're making and that was the dollar i would have been and the. know we were playing there and this is the vice president cultural production in eugene kids from mexico one thousand nine hundred three told me this gibson created the stanley heirs foundation refusing to sell his family's fifty plus acres to coal companies before mountaintop removal began his family cemetery was surrounded by mountain ridges today the family cemetery looks out on reclaimed mountaintop removal sites.

eighteen years ago when i came back and it took me four years a claim afghanistan metairie and if one thousand nine hundred ninety eight announced the clearest photo in eighteen years ago when i started this i couldn't get to people to listen not even my own family. and i don't know about turning a corner how crest of a knob on a or that was there was before the snow only there in my own mind only had. the lord just gone. the young ads of the day were never seen where i've seen the young as of the day were never see the mountains to with. no limits no boundaries for you could roam gibson uses the land a capered mountain to educate the public about the effects of mountaintop removal one of the biggest questions people asked me if i had a picture of the mountain before was destroyed here people know why should you take a picture of a mountain for it's going to be here forever. day by day the seventy five hundred

acres of active mountaintop removal mine continue to encircle his property. another family cemetery sits across the ridge on the active mine site although regulations require that family members have access to these cemeteries requests are often not easily granted. on memorial day of two thousand and six gibson and a group of supporters make a trip to the cemetery it well today we're going to go on the mine site of the cemetery. and we've got the how all around and different things going on and. it's just me. showing i'm probably a cowboy to get to cold even into a graveyard. after filling out a den of occasion and release forms the group is permitted to enter the mine site you know one and a half mile hike to the family cemetery. and

imagine having to sign a release to go visit my family you. have heard it's with you. the first waterhole i risk one man in my life was up the. waterhole not there now we've got six seven hundred foot high wall there and. my mama give me birth. in the light. well. you can get to the cemetery through their corner as your round. they used to be a road over here for four for one right here. over to the other wanted. one i hear. your people are taking part in history is playing december third been here

for two hundred seventy years never had this many people on it and it has two hundred fifty years on ice time on top to come through here they were and so generous and kind. the center got another story here i won't tell you our house they sent to my. house and these people for a rainy fifth graders their first time in georgia and come here four years ago we had kate stone who had dates on and they're no longer here if they miss saying that we came and got in. and not the case and in order to which town is going to say on johnson our side is we're just not going to hurt here for alone time in mid august of two thousand and six the west virginia department of environmental protection revoked a permit to massey energy to expand its plant and marsh fork elementary by building a second coal silo the d.d.p. determined that the second coal silo was placed outside the permitted boundary of

three hundred feet from the school after maps of the preparation plant were found to be an accurate. live. nobody would stand that. nobody will stand up to the street. i stand up for my grandma or fly i stand up to her for her kids as well i represent oldfield march fourth elementary and i will stay and and i will fight and i will do whatever it takes to get something done for those children that they issued allow him no more

of our will you know that it. was cut. when i was. in noodling really. really locked up. the little league thing. i didn't see. well no i couldn't talk to as many folks as i have along the way that a lot of folks shows for revenge a kind a lot of folks on the issue the rice

a little money for the new school and the issue in one of our goals for us is to come here and hopefully talk and make the sandberg and off feel that we have conflict all three of them and leave us going for a lot of doors for a lot of people on this issue now is very important for me to walk on march fourteenth two thousand and seven the state board of surface mining overturned a west virginia department of environmental protections ruling that denied massey energy a permit to build a second coal silo behind the school this decision cleared the way for the expansion of messy energy's coal processing facility two days later a coalition of citizen conservation groups including mountain just a summer activists returned to west virginia governor joe manchin is office. for her. thank.

god. and neil. first three years for the rights of those children that i see it's raining outside right now are saying as well tell us mugs day i'm sorry. does that mean anything to you we preach to you all for three years. to marry the people in these camps used to be accountable for at least what i want to ask you to do i'm going to go back to the back corner we need to clear this way because people got a good back and forth your eyes. i'm sure more work.

you have to get a new school that's the one you're broke your i ain't playing here i'm telling you we're not budging there's more coming. your. way around the iron fist fight you know what you're offering their field. markedly more made in a whisper in the air while you find them worrywart result today we want our kids to . share. wired to our kids there. are girls day in the code field. there on the wrong side of them i don't. know we are the cradle that bring their money out of them out of the farmer where you can be took care of us are still our children. thanks for the state good

job in this you such as whether school should be the. new school should be built a decision was first we have to look. i've heard the low. the school board with the decision on a new school had more for you for a vote of the people raleigh. so they can determine the final outcome from sales so i. know all i could i hope that corby. burton's measures to be heard. if. you. can hear those he could read and i know who say we. are certainly there who. like that but.

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they faced this is not a provocation but in war and. a force it i'm sure you see several you sure disapprove retreat because they have no idea about the hardships to face. they wanted this is it. to loosen the grip in the army the life of abuse the enemy is the most precious thing in the world. uses of self-sacrifice and heroism with those who understand it fully but you have to live a. real life stories from world war two. to three thousand nine

hundred forty five gold. in indonesia oh jeez available in the ground zero for sure it's a media hutto the ritz carlton hotel a little hotel the film of the millennium hotel in china you can see since hotel mccomb rocks hotel macaron grand lido hotel macau the venetian marco resort hotel resort of the so. when resorts mcconnell's beverly plaza hotel macau riviera hotel because cintra hotel mckown. the toxic smoke that's why it had moscow finally lifts but the record heat wave shows no signs of abating hundreds of wildfires still burning in western and central russia with flames now reaching areas contaminated by the sure.