I know that this is
something that bloggers are loath to admit, but often, particularly when I blog
about mountaintop removal mining, the hits I get on this blog can be pretty
meager, diving down from dozens or hundreds to only a few hits.
The
reason for this is quite simple. Mountaintop mining is simply not on the minds
of most folks. This is due in part at least to the few stories about the mines
in the press. In the past 15 years the New York Times ran 40 stories that were
about mountaintop removal or mentioned mountaintop removal somewhere in a
story.[1]
Conversely, over the same period the Times ran 17,158 stories that were about
or mentioned Israel.
Certainly
there is much that goes on in Israel that is newsworthy, and on the occasions
when there are missiles flying or bombs going off there will be a lot of press
coverage of that area of the world. But a scourge on the land and people of
Appalachia—one that is occurring within our borders, one that has been
investigated by the U.N. for human rights abuses, one which, unlike the
politics or conflicts of a country thousands of miles away, we can actually do
something about—why does it receive less than 0.3 percent of the coverage of
that given to Israel?
Because
of the dearth of press coverage, we just aren’t curious about mountaintop
removal and don’t try to find out more about it. Below is a graph showing the
searches in Google[2] for
mountaintop removal over the last ten years. The graph doesn’t give absolute
numbers, but you’ll get my point in the next few graphs. You can see from the
graph that interest in mountaintop coal mining peaked around 2010.
 |
| Goolging of mountaintop removal since 2005 |
Now take a look at the
graph below. It shows the googling of mountaintop removal compared to the
googling of fracking. The blue line is the one representing mountaintop removal
and the red one is the fracking one. If you think about it, fracking has been
in the headlines a lot more than MTR mining. Maybe this can be explained by
more compelling and appealing documentaries about fracking. Perhaps the press covers
the extractive practice more because more communities are affected by hydraulic
fracturing than that of mountaintop removal.
 |
| Googling of mountaintop removal and fracking since 2005 |
OK, here’s the kicker.
Below is a graph of the googling done on mountaintop removal, fracking, and
Taylor Swift, the very popular singer. The line representing her Google
searches is the dashed yellow one.
 |
| Googling of mountaintop removal, fracking, and Taylor Swift since 2005 |
Wow. The searches on
fracking barely resister compared to the ones on Swift, and unless I knew that
mountaintop removal was graphed, I would not know it was there.
I
don’t mean to take away from Taylor Swift and her popularity. She brings a
great deal of joy to millions. I would like to see peace for the Middle East,
and perhaps the press coverage of the region will help bring that about. The
same can be said about fracking, that the press coverage and interest in the
subject will help us to stop or severely restrict this dangerous extractive
practice. But why such miniscule press coverage of the mines that are
devastating our Appalachia? Why?
 |
| And here's a picture of Taylor Swift, just for good measure. photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images |
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