Tonight William will be at Notre Dame’s Browning Cinema in support of Mountaintop Removal, a documentary he narrated at the beginning of this year which explores the enviromnental, social, and economic repercussions of a controversial coal mining process.
If you think coal is an inexpensive energy source, consider the price paid by the people of southern Appalachia. For two years, filmmaker Michael O’Connell documented the struggle between West Virginia activists and coal companies over the mining practice known as mountaintop removal, during which explosives are used to remove 1,000 vertical feet of soil and rock. The process chokes the air and creates pools of toxic sludge, as the people of the region use every means of non-violent protest at their disposal––including a sit-in at the governor’s office––to save both their land and their lives.
