It is a good thing that these Appalachian grassroots organizations exist, and that they are uniting in the ILoveMountains organization.  To make the terrificly destructive effects of mountaintop-removal mining readily visible is clearly a valuable service, seeing that that disgraceful practice has been tolerated for so long by Americans, more out of ignorance than lack of interest (I hope).

By the same token, I loathe the series of TV ads that the coal industry has been running, showing bright, polite children, in sunny and pleasingly decorated bedrooms, looking up from their computers and cheerily teaching us that coal is the solution to all our problems.

That said, I find the Google Earth image hard to read.  (I am only considering the side-by-side photos in Corey's post.)  In the image on the right, the only obvious signs of destruction that I can make out are the light brown areas in the background.  The green areas actually look as though the foliage is thicker.  And all the white areas, the most obvious difference from the image on the left, have the appearance of snow cover, not new mining operations.

Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!