Black Diamonds charts the escalating drama in Appalachia over the alarming increase in large mountaintop coal mines. These mammoth operations have covered 1200 miles of headwater streams with mining waste; demolished thousands of acres of hardwood forest; and flattened hundred of Appalachian mountain peaks. Citizen testimony and visual documentation interwoven with the perspectives of government officials, activists, and scientists create a riveting portrait of an American region fighting for its life--caught between the grinding wheels of the national appetite for cheap energy and an enduring sense of Appalachian culture, pride, and natural beauty.

Advocacy Organizations

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
http://www.ohvec.org/

Coal River Mountain Watch
http://www.coalfieldsustainability.org/signon.php

WV Highlands Conservancy
http://www.wvhighlands.org/

Mountain Justice Summer
http://mountainjusticesummer.org/

Earthjustice
http://earthjustice.org/

Other Mountaintop Removal Links

Appalshop's Buffalo Creek Film Preservation & Digital Outreach Project
http://www.buffalocreekflood.org/

Stop Mountaintop Removal
(a joint effort of OVEC, CRMW, West Virginia Highland Conservancy Appalachian Center for the Economy and Environment, & Earthjustice)
http://www.stopmountaintopremoval.org/