Mary Anne Hitt, Appalachian Voices [1]

Anyone who has ever flown in a small aircraft over southern West Virginia or eastern Kentucky to view mountaintop removal coal mining first-hand can never forget the experience of seeing the massive scale of destruction—mountain after mountain blown up and dumped into valleys as far as the eye can see. People working to stop mountaintop removal have long dreamed of flying thousands of people over the Appalachian coal fields, but the logistics of that endeavor proved daunting.

As an alternative, Appalachian Voices [2] turned to Google Earth [3]. In the past, we took reporters and decision-makers on day-long tours, first flying over the coal fields and then driving through coal field communities to hear first-hand accounts from local residents. Today, a good approximation of that tour is accessible to anyone with a computer, a high-speed internet connection, and Google Earth, extending the reach of Appalachian Voices by millions of people.

To get started, we used ARC2Earth [4] software installed on our GIS system and compiled other resources using Google Earth Pro. As a result, we were able to start the project without any proficiency in KML programming [5] at all. To ensure a high quality end product, the final KML file was generated with a script pulling in information organized in a spreadsheet.

The Appalachian Mountaintop Removal KML makes use of many of Google Earth’s capabilities, from customized pop-ups and icons to high-resolution overlays, strategic placement of SketchUp [6] models, and connectivity to a multitude of resources on the web. Appalachian Voices has made great use of web connectivity, allowing other organizations to contribute resources accessible through a single interface within Google Earth. The connection to the web also allows visitors to get involved in the effort to stop mountaintop removal with just a couple of clicks.

In the ten days following the release of the Appalachian Mountaintop Removal KML in Google Earth, more than 13,000 people from every US state and more than 30 countries signed this online petition [7] to stop the dumping of mountaintop mining waste into waterways.

Take the tour [8].