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Whether they are majestic and rocky or green and smoky, mountains affect the wildlife, weather patterns and air quality of almost every person in the United States. For centuries, the mountains in the southeastern part of this country have provided more than just a nice place to hike, yet they have been gored, cleared and gutted to obtain a substance that’s considered much more precious by many industrial professionals: coal.

In this time of political and economic upheaval, we frequently hear about renewable fuels, green jobs and clean energy. Indeed, these technologies and opportunities are much more widely accepted now than they have ever been. However, changing the hearts and attitudes of the people and companies that depend on fossil fuels for their livelihoods is another matter. This takes a lot longer than it would take to come up with a clever marketing campaign.

Despite recent attention from the Obama Administration, a deplorable practice known as mountain top removal mining has been allowed to continue unabated in this country, especially in West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. A testament to the flippant attitude of the coal mining industry towards the delicate ecosystems that inhabit these mountains, the Environmental Protection Agency defines mountaintop removal or valley fill as “a mining practice where the tops of mountains are removed, exposing the seams of coal. Mountaintop removal can involve removing 500 feet or more of the summit to get at buried seams of coal. The earth from the mountaintop is then dumped in the neighboring valleys.”

Thanks to this type of mining, the people who have lived in these “neighboring valleys” for generations are asked to watch helplessly as the mountain tops are disintegrated with toxic explosives and then bulldozed down the slopes into the valleys where the fill chokes rivers, displaces wildlife and severely increases the potential for flooding and landslides.

This appalling practice has already destroyed over 500 mountains in central Appalachia, mountains which are thought to be well over 300 million years old. Not even mentioned are the homes and lives that have already been crushed under the constant blasting and degradation of the landscape. But if the environmental devastation caused by blowing the tops off mountains with ammonium nitrate oil fuel to expose seams of coal seems of little interest or importance, perhaps the effects on children may get someone’s attention.

This fall, as your children don brand new shoes and back packs in order to return to school in style, think about the children of Appalachia who were unable to get any sleep before the first day of school because the mining companies are allowed by law to operate within up to 300 feet of residential homes and to continue operating 24 hours a day. Consider what it is like to sit in a classroom breathing toxic coal dust, or to eat lunch in a school cafeteria where you can’t drink from water fountains because the water supply in your town has been contaminated by rain that carries poisonous chemicals down from the mining sites. Think about what it might be like to have your entire home washed away in a flash flood that is a direct result of clear cutting trees and the disruption of other vegetation whose root systems formerly held the hillsides together.

If you’re concerned, you can begin by taking serious steps to reduce your own carbon footprint and dependence on fossil fuels. You can also visit www.mountainaction.org and www.ilovemountains.org to learn how you can join the fight to save America’s endangered mountains.

Beth Buczynski is a freelance writer, avid recycler and amateur gardener with a secret dream of living off the grid. bethbot52@gmail.com