Women give powerful testimony at UN Tribunal

Several KFTC members participated in a powerful program last week to draw attention to the connections between what is happening to the land and people in Central Appalachia and related conditions throughout the world.

They shared testimony with other women from the region about the health, economic, community and environmental impacts of coal at the Central Appalachian Women's Tribunal on Climate Justice. The event took place May 10 in Charleston, West Virginia.

KFTC Floyd County member Bev May drew attention to the growing number of medical studies linking elevated rates of a variety of health problems to strip mining.

Bev May

"All the research points to what mountain people have known since mountaintop removal began - it is not possible to destroy our mountains without destroying us," May said. "It's not possible to poison our streams without poisoning our children for untold generations to come. The research is not complete, but there's more than enough research to justify an immediate moratorium on mountaintop removal."

Ivy Brashear also referenced evidence of the negative health impacts resulting from mining experienced as she grew up in a area with coal in eastern Kentucky. That reality weighs on her, she testified, as she thinks of raising her own family in the mountains.

"I will have to make a lot of important choices in my life, but of all the major choices I will have to make, wondering whether or not it's safe to birth my future children in my homeland of eastern Kentucky should not even have to register on that list," Brashear said." I, nor any other young woman who wishes to have children in the place of their own birth, should ever have to think about the ramifications our future children might have to endure simply from living where our families have lived for generations."

Ivy Brashear

The tribunal was sponsored by the Loretto Community at the United Nations, the Feminist Task Force of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, the Civil Society Institute and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. It is one of about 20 that have been held around the world, and the findings will be shared at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil in June.

Sharman Chapman-Crane

Sharman Chapman-Crane talked about how coal companies have used ongoing and proposed mining to threaten people and divide communities In Letcher County. That has included punishing people and organizations who were friends and associates because they associated with her.

"The fabric of our lives is being shredded. I call it the slicing and dicing at the company's hands. The corporations are masters in these techniques."

The Rev. Donna Aros reflected on her life in Louisa, where the water is not safe to drink, the community is covered with coal dust and ash, and too many people have tumors, heart disease, cancer and breathing problems.

Rev. Donna Aros

"God created the land in all its beauty and glory - the water, pristine and necessary for life - providing for all our needs in abundance," Aros said. "But the greed of a few have desecrated the garden, and fouled the rivers, bringing death and scarcity to our region. We dishonor God, and desperately harm our people and all living things. This is sin."

VIDEO:  See some video from the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition here.