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.

Care Package #2: My Guide to VICE.com Documentaries for You Hip People

Toxic: Garbage Island

VICE is a controversial magazine/website dedicated to (let's not mince words) hipsters. VICE covers fashion, music, pop culture, art, photography, sex, weirdos, gross-out journalism, travel, and bizarre cultural practices. While most of the content is written, there is a wealth of documentaries in the video section of their website. VICE is prolific in their documentary series which features a large cast of young journalists, and makes one wonder how profitable VICE actually is to be able to fund all of the travel expenses. Maybe it's all thanks to American Apparel.

The difference between VICE documentaries, and other documentaries I watch, is that VICE's are showcased in a blog.  Most of the films I watch, though I often view them online on Hulu or YouTube, have at least been in limited release in independent theaters at some point in time. The VICE documentaries debut in the 21st century version of direct to video: direct to the web and on a computer near you. Which is not to say that a VICE documentary is lesser than the average documentary. VICE screens the film off of their website so viewers' comments are visible, and there is related content and other fun stuff to look at that you might not have stumbled upon otherwise. The documentaries are presented in a relatable and vernacular style, which does not necessarily over-simplify the message; it makes you feel like you're taking in a genuine experience. Each documentary also belongs to a specific series. You can therefore see another documentary you liked with similar themes on a consistent basis. That's something the average documentary film maker can't promise you.
Here are three of my favorite VICE series to watch.

Hamilton's Pharmacopeia
Watching Hamilton go to exotic and dangerous places to alter his mind is such a joy. It sounds like going around the world just to try psychotropic drugs is a vapid activity, but the culture behind it is always intriguing, a prime example being the video below, Hamilton's Pharmacopeia: Nzambi. In this installment Hamilton goes to Haiti and explores what it means to be turned into a zombie using the traditional herbs, venom, and voodoo practices. It's always compelling seeing Hamilton try to cope with the new cultures and people he encounters, and well as the crazy things locals try to put in him. My two favorite episodes, Nzambi and The Sapo Diaries, both involve Hamilton taking drugs through the forearm, but not intravenously. You have to watch to find out how. 



Toxic
The series Toxic reveals the grittiest images of pollution in the modern world. The documentary, Toxic: Garbage Island, was my first taste of a VICE documentary. As seen in the video below, Garbage Island follows three VICE corespondents as they sail the North Pacific Gyre with a group of scientists collecting samples of plastic in the ocean. The Gyre contains a clump of plastic waste predicted to be the size of Texas. Aside from the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Toxic has also been to the Amazon, West Virginia, and China, amongst others. Most installments of Toxic show how pollution deeply effects people and their environment as it is happening currently. I liked Garbage Island for turning pollution into a faceless, lurking, Jaws-esque villain. The crew is in the middle of the ocean, no land in sight, nothing seems amiss. Yet when they run their skimmer through the waves, out comes some terrifying stuff.



Vice Guide to North Korea
Shane Smith, founder of Vice Magazine and our guide through this documentary, put it best when he described North Korea is an insane country. Three points in this film that embody such insanity: the lonely tea-girl the crew met in the middle of nowhere who had not seen any customers for days, the massive banquet hall in the hotel filled with food for no one, and Arirang (a spectacular performance by thousands of children). Bizarrely, all of these activities were shared by Shane and the crew alone (because they won't let anyone else into North Korea). In this documentary, as well as North Korean Labor Camps and North Korean Film Madness, the delusions of this severely isolated country are revealed as sad and fascinating.