Photographer and activist Vivian Stockman leans out of the airplane and points at the mining site, a pale gray, black and red sore where a green mountain had been this time last year. The reporter with her calls over the howl of the prop and wind, asking her, as they all do in one form or another, "How could someone get away with this?"
Stockman is a project coordinator for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC), a non-profit organization formed to organize grassroots efforts to protect the environment of West Virginia. She focuses much of her time and energy on combating mountaintop removal, the particularly aggressive form of coal mining that involves removing the mountain from the coal, instead of removing the coal from the mountain.
We began our conversation talking about her involvement with OVEC.
Stockman: My group is involved in the fight to end mountaintop removal because people living in the shadow of these operations came to us and asked for help. Now, these folks are among my friends and we simply must work together to end this insane form of mining. Once you know about this form of mining, you can't turn you back. You have to do something, even if it is only trying to use less electricity.
Jones: How has the Internet impacted environmental movements?
Stockman: Nothing will ever take the place of door-to-door organizing and face-to-face discussions, but the Internet is an amazing tool for groups like ours. I send out OVEC's action alert to the over 1000 people on our electronic list, and people send their e-mail on, so we have a big multiplier effect. I can disseminate press releases quickly, and communicate with people anywhere there's a computer. Certainly, the ability to search for images on the Internet has been useful for OVEC. I can count on requests to use our photos coming in almost daily--they really are a powerful way to the spread the word--or in this case, the picture--about mountaintop removal.
Jones: How is it that whole mountains are disappearing? Why do people stand for this?
Stockman: The outlaw coal industry is --for far too long-- used to having its way, and politicians are used to doing its bidding if there are campaign contributions to be had.
This is America's dirty little secret--once most people learn about this, they can't believe it is happening. They want to do something to help stop the destruction. As of yet, we aren't frequently on the nightly news, so many people still don't know this is going on, despite all the print media attention.
A fairly recent survey found that about 2/3 of West Virginians who know about mountaintop removal oppose it. As for those who condone mountaintop removal, perhaps they buy in to coal industry propaganda. One thing that is going on for some who think it is just nifty--Upton Sinclair summed that up: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
Jones: Could you tell me some of what goes through your mind when you are composing or framing a photograph?
Stockman: Truthfully when I am in the air, one of the things going through my mind is “I hope I don't toss my cookies" (I get a bad case of motion sickness every time we go up in the little planes) and "Is my camera about to fly out the window?" I am usually in the back of the plane, accompanying some journalist who is the reason we (a SouthWings pilot and myself) are up there in the first place. I snap away, into the sun, into the shade, over someone's shoulder, out the back window...sometimes I can't even see my screen, it's just point and click. Every time I am back on the ground, it’s then I have time to reflect on the devastation I’ve just witnessed. The destruction is so brutal. Once, upon landing I thought, “This might approach what seeing a pile of corpses must feel like.”
Firmly on the ground, the digital cameras with the viewfinders make it so easy to compose a shot. With small things, I can take my time.
Some people have said I have a good eye, but in the air or on the ground, it's a trick from professional photographers--take enough shots, and some of them are bound to be good.
Jones: Take enough shots and some of them are bound to be good. Tell enough people and some of them are bound to listen. As an activist, do you ever feel that you are just shouting into the wind?
Stockman: Invariably, when people learn about mountaintop removal they can't understand how this could be going on. People ask 'How can this be?' Then they ask, 'What can I do?' That's what's encouraging. People who stop to really consider it know mountaintop removal is wrong, and they want to get involved to help end it.
Estimates are that only about five percent of coal burned in US for electricity comes from MTR mines. We could save 20-30 percent of our current energy usage--without changing our lifestyles--by using currently available energy efficiency and conservation measures.
One thing our group does is work for Clean Elections measures here in the state--like they already have in Vermont and Maine. If we had politicians that weren't so beholden to the coal industry, change would be a lot easier.
We use a multi-pronged approach to winning our battles. Organizing is a key component. By building our base we organize a whole bunch of Davids to stand taller than Goliath.
Media outreach is another key component. Media outreach helps us build our base far beyond West Virginia's borders. People within Appalachia and people without--we need all clamoring for an end to this crazy form of mining. We also use the law. Agencies are granting mountaintop removal mines permits when they should not, and we use litigation to try to make them comply.
Jones: What can the average Joe or Jane do about mountaintop removal?
Stockman: Spreading the word about mountaintop removal is one of the most important things people can do. Talk with your family, neighbors, friends, congregation. Write letters to the editor. Set up a viewing of "Black Diamonds: Mountaintop removal and the fight for coalfield justice" or "Mountain Top Removal" or "Mountain Mourning." After the films, write letters together asking you congress person to co-sponsor the Clean Water Protection Act. Sign up for OVEC's electronic action alert list and become a member of OVEC. Explore our website, www.ohvec.org. Save money by conserving your use of energy. Contact your local coal-fired power plant and ask them if they use mountaintop removal mined coal. They'll probably say they can't tell because the coal gets mixed together, but tell them you want to know. Start a divestment campaign at your local university--if the institution is invested in coal companies that practice mountaintop removal mining, organize students to demand divestment.
(A shorter version of this interview first appeared in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal.)