In an Associated Press article in the Nov. 5 Herald-Leader, Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Caylor commented on anti-surface mining organizations’ use of the Internet and Google Earth to display satellite images of mountaintop-removal mining sites.

“I clearly think it’s for shock value,” Caylor said. “They’re playing the emotional card on us.”

Well, I am shocked to see satellite photos of destroyed areas that dwarf the area inside Lexington’s New Circle Road hundreds of times. I am shocked to see vast areas of Appalachia unfit for human habitation.

I am shocked to see that mountaintop removal has occurred over nearly half of Perry, Knott and other counties — areas away from highways that we’d never know about were it not for these satellite images.

I am shocked to know that there are people who would destroy God’s creation. If you can’t get emotional about the destruction of the Earth, what can you get emotional about?

C.G. Hughes
Nicholasville