Appalachian Voices is thrilled to announce that as of this morning, an updated high-resolution version of the “National Memorial for the Mountains” will be available as “featured content” to the millions of people who use GoogleEarth software. This means that millions of people who have never heard of mountaintop removal, will be exposed to it for the first time.

Appalachian Voices Executive Director Mary Anne Hitt’s announcement is atop the Google blog this morning:

Now it’s your turn to fly over the region. I invite you to take a look at the mountaintop removal layer in the new featured content for Google Earth. Look for “Appalachian Mountaintop Removal” under the “Global Awareness” folder of the “Layers” sidebar. You can take the site tour of a mountaintop removal operation, explore the featured mountains and affected communities marked with blue flag buttons, and use the slider bar to see high resolution images of these mountains before and after mountaintop removal. To view all the locations of the over 470 mountains that have been destroyed, please visit the full featured version of the Memorial on www.iLoveMountains.org.

Thanks for visiting and helping us spread the word, and thanks to everyone at Google Earth who worked so hard to help us bring this important information to life.

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