Mountain Top Removal and Why That is Not Such a Good Idea

Mitt Romney wants to make America independent from foreign oil by 2020. His plan does not include research on clean energy such as biofuels, solar power, and wind power. Instead he wants to drill and mine more than ever. Apparently this will create more jobs (and I did I mention make us more independent). But what about the effects on the land, the miners and drillers, the people living around the drilling, any progress we have made scientifically to improve our quality of life?

Below is a short documentary from Vice.com's Toxic series called,  
Toxic: West Virgina, that exposes the dangers of mountain top removal to access coal. It strips the land of topsoil and pollutes the groundwater. That doesn't just effect the wildlife; it hinders community development. Producer, Meredith Danluck writes,

"The companies try to play it off by saying that they’re developing flat land. On flat land, theoretically, you can put a mall or a Wal-Mart. But when they do mountaintop removal and make the land flat, the substructure is so compromised that the things they’ve built have been condemned. After a couple of years, the walls and plumbing start busting up because of the structure settling."

You may recognize the host, Derrick Beckles, as the face of the WHUDAFXUP branch of the Truth anti-smoking campaign. Fortunately he's not making any awkward stunts to try and freakout the establishment and make his point, though his snark still lingers. This episode of Toxic interviews real salt-of-the-earth people. If you're turned off by listening to bleeding heart hippies, they are nowhere to be found in this film. Though I have nothing against a good tree-hugging hippie, the message is powerful hearing it from the people who actually live there, and are unfortunately physically suffering as the land is. These are people who are constantly sick from the pollution caused by mining, and made to feel stupid for debating the ills of this business. As a man in the film said "They make fun of your commonsense."

"Right there is what I have to take on a daily basis to stay alive."

It's obvious that what we have going for us isn't working, and if that energy "plan" comes to fruition you can expect ten times what you see in this video. The atrocities these people are experiencing will happen to more people, maybe even you if it hasn't already.

Adult ≠ Maturity

Why can't we all just act like adults? I'm not against the concept, I just don't think it's actually attainable.

All throughout childhood, we are accused of acting like a younger person. "You're acting like a 2-year-old." "Stop acting like a five-year-old" "What are you, twelve?" In high school we say, "This whole thing is so middle school!" In college we say, "Why does this have to be just like high school?" Still during college and well into adulthood we are very often caught saying about someone, "Why can't they just act like an adult about it?"

When I was in middle school - host to some of the cattiest times in a girl's life - my parents told me that I would be lamenting people's immaturity and selfishness throughout my whole life. Basically: It doesn't get better. The concept of being a full-fledged adult appears pretty unreachable, and expecting it of anyone will lead down a road of constant disappointment. Especially if you believe once you reach a certain age, it's the time everyone is going to stop doing the things that always pissed you off. 

It was hard to believe, but it is true that some people (not you nor I, of course) will always be (for lack of a better phrase) pieces of total shit from when they are kids until they die. It does get a little better, though. Any high school or middle school teacher can attest, the kids can be remarkably inconsiderate, to say the least. I suppose as a grown person, it becomes more discouraging when the occasional 40 year-old does something that brings you back to the 7th grade. It makes one think, "really? still? now? you? come on." People will do things that we try to characterize as immature; measuring their actions as those made by someone younger and less conscious of the world and how they effect others. While these are characteristics of a many children, most will grow to a good level of thoughtfulness, but some traits unfortunately wont be shaken.

As a 25 year-old I know that aspects of my behavior have definitely improved over the years, and maybe some haven't. No one is perfect, and I don't know anyone who I can confidently say follows all of the criteria of being a so-called adult (no offense). The aforementioned "criteria" is loose and changes to fit a person's needs for argument's sake.

It seems like whenever someone wants to make a person look worse, they can play the adult card. "Oh, grow up!" "You're just being immature." It's really easy to throw those phrases around, take a person down a notch, and make yourself look better. You're the one who is determining maturity so therefore you must be mature. Right? 

Here's the dictionary definition: 

ma·ture

[muh-toor, -tyoor, -choor, -chur] adjective  
1. complete in natural growth or development, as plant and animal forms: a mature rose bush.

2. ripe, as fruit, or fully aged, as cheese or wine.

3. fully developed in body or mind, as a person: a mature woman.

4. pertaining to or characteristic of full development: a mature appearance; fruit with a mature softness.

5. completed, perfected, or elaborated in full by the mind: mature plans.

The definition hints at behavior by using the word "mind" once, but it mostly just talks about fruit.

My boyfriend, Matt uses the phrase, "Be a human" which at first sounds incredibly condescending (of course I'm a human, what are you talking about?), but is actually a much more fair request than "Be an adult." Since acting like a so-called adult is an ambiguous expectation, one should try to be a good human being. It's something you can do at any age.

Apparently I have to start taking photos of rotting fruit for iStock

Once in middle school I saw a girl crying over a break-up, and a male teacher took her aside and told her that because she was crying, it only proved that she was too immature to have a boyfriend. That interaction has stayed with me. I tried to imagine a future where men and women interacted with no conflicts, if only because they were able to hold it all inside and not rock the boat. If there was one bs thing adults always tried to convince kids, it was that adults take care of things with maturity, and maturity means no crying or whining. While it's best to avoid whining and crying, it's unrealistic that it can all be eliminated if we all just bucked up and acted like "adults" damn it!

Considering the concept of not crying over a break-up as the hallmark of adulthood and maturity, (and not the characteristic of a sociopath) I think everyone can agree that no matter how old you are, a break-up is a break-up, and if being an adult means being a robot that amicably shakes hands with a lover as they tell you they found someone new, then I guess being an adult and being human are two completely different things.

Welcome Humans

Obviously people just do random things to each other. If they're lucky the action sticks, grows in popularity and becomes a trend - and not a really awkward moment they will never live down. A simple explanation like that can be the only answer to why passing a newborn baby through a rind of cheese was ever popular.

photo courtesy of buzzfeed.com

According to the Encyclopedia of Superstitions, during the middle ages women would make a "groaning cheese" upon becoming pregnant, which would age for 9 months. Once the baby was born, the family and friends of the mother would eat the wheel of cheese, leaving a rind behind at the time of Christening. On the Christening day, the baby would be passed through the rind of the cheese.

The encyclopedia of Superstitions could not answer why it was called a groaning cheese, and like most odd trends from that long ago, it is explained people thought it would bring good luck, (obvi) but did not further explain why they would believe such a silly thing. You know, prosperity, and wealth, and good health, and good... just good things, all the good things. Stuff the Christening didn't cover.

On that fateful first day the baby could have been passed through anything. I'm thinking watermelon rind, ribcage of a pig, dunked in a wine barrel, large hollowed out loaf of bread; any and all of the major food groups. Maybe somewhere else other foods were experimented with, but the cheese just stuck, and a ridiculous tradition gained some respect for a while.

I swear someone's uncle must have gotten really drunk and thought it would be funny to put the baby in the empty cheese rind after the party. To save embarrassment the family insisted to friends it was an important ritual. Then everyone else wanted to be cool.

Or maybe it was some kind of Pinterest-esq idea a woman had. Just the simple thought of a common denominator between things (9 months in this case), and you got an adorable rustic foodie craft project.

Nowadays she would have made a post explaining how she can make this cheese that takes 9 months to age, and omg how perfect is it that the pregnancy will be just as long! There would be a compelling time-lapse video of her belly growing and the cheese doing it's cheese thing. It would end with an Instagram shot of her and her wax moustachioed husband passing the baby through the cheese as everyone laughs and drinks cocktails out of mason jars.
Then everyone else wanted to be cool.

I'm going to Pin this photo on to a board titled "Newborn Craft Ideas"

Also people just do weird stuff to their kids. This photo above is not of a frozen fetus, though it is a sculpture of one. This is a recent development in pre-birth keepsakes. It's called "Shape of an Angel": you simply have an MRI, and a company in Japan will make a life-sized 3D resin print of your womb and fetus. By the way, I never knew the womb was that angular.
Do I wish my parents had the technology to do this for my birth? Yes. It is creepy, however, ultrasound photos are always pretty grainy, and all babies look the same right when they come out, so your first photo is relatively unremarkable. This though, is a completely accurate copy of yourself at a time you definitely wont remember, your parents otherwise could never envision, and therefore need to commemorate in the most vivid way possible. Right now it costs over $1000 to do, but this could possibly catch on and be just another bizarre tradition in welcoming new humans into this world.