Appalachian Voices and
Your Connection

Appalachian Voices and a broad coalition of coal-field groups had been working for years to stop mountaintop removal mining.  This extremely destructive form of strip mining has catastrophic consequences, but the issue was facing a logjam in Congress. The reason: no one outside of the region cared.

A strategic communications analysis identified the core problem: Americans viewed mountaintop removal as something happening “over there,” to the “poor white trash” of Appalachia. We needed to create a connection between the people we needed to reach and the human stories of mountaintop removal.

I designed a strategy to reach out beyond the coal fields to show Americans from all across the country how they are connected to the devastation of mountaintop removal – by documenting how mountaintop removal coal is used to power their homes.

We launched a unique online tool that used Google Maps and Google Earth to make this connection concrete. When a user inputs their zip code, it draws a line from their house, to their power plant, to the mountain blown up for their power – and then presents human stories of the impacts of that mining. The online tool received coverage in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and in several regional outlets – and it became the basis for ongoing grassroots outreach and cultivation beyond Appalachia.