Dear Friend,

The word is getting out about the true cost of mountaintop removal coal mining.

In the two weeks since we launched the My Connection webtool and campaign, more than a thousand new people have signed up to iLoveMountains.org — in large part because of your efforts to help spread the word.

MyConnection has also garnered a great deal of press attention. Just last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote about our efforts in The Huffington Post:

Coal’s most catastrophic and permanent impacts are from mountaintop removal mining. If the American people could see what I have seen from the air and ground during my many trips to the coalfields of Kentucky and West Virginia: leveled mountains, devastated communities, wrecked economies and ruined lives, there would be a revolution in this country.

Well now you can visit coal country without ever having to leave your home. Every presidential candidate and every American ought to take a few seconds to visit an ingenious new website, [ iLoveMountains.org] that allows one to tour the obliterated landscapes of Appalachia….

The amazing new website allows you to enter your zip code to learn how you’re personally connected to the great crime of mountaintop removal. Using this website Americans from Maine to California can see these mountains and the communities that were sacrificed to power their home….

The site puts a human face on the issue by highlighting the stories of families living in the shadows of these mines…..

This new website finally exposes this national disgrace for every American to witness.

Across the country, other writers and reporters have hailed the My Connection webtool, with great stories appearing in papers ranging from The Winston-Salem Journal to The Wall Street Journal, as well as in regional and national outlets such as West Virginia Public Broadcasting and the Worldwatch Institute.

But we need your help to continue to get the word out about how we’re all connected to the national tragedy of mountaintop removal coal mining.

Here’s what you can do:

• Visit any of the press links above and send an article to 5 friends or family members. Ask them to check out My Connection and to join you in our effort to stop mountaintop removal coal mining.
• If you belong to Facebook, MySpace, de.licio.us, DIGG, or any other social networking or link-sharing site, take a moment to add the My Connection link to your profile or stream, or click here to add an “Are You Connected?” badge to your blog or homepage. You never know when a friend will follow your recommendation and get involved!
• If you haven’t visited your personal impact page recently, take a moment to sign in and invite 5 more friends to join you in the movement to end mountaintop removal coal mining.

Getting the word out and getting your friends and family to join us does make a tremendous difference. For example, your efforts to demand Congressional action to end the worst abuses of mountaintop removal have resulted in a record 118 co-sponsors for the Clean Water Protection Act in the U.S. House, and thousands of comments have been sent to the Office of Surface Mining opposing the Bush administration’s attempt to weaken a long-standing federal rule intended to protect streams from coal mining.

Thanks to you, we’ve seen tremendous growth in all of our efforts this year — but we’re just getting started! 2008 will see the debate over the future of mountaintop removal coal mining grow even more intense and prominent.

So please, take a moment to take any or all of the actions above. By acting together, we can grow our movement and put an end to the national disgrace of mountaintop removal coal mining.

Thank you for taking action,

Mary Anne Hitt
iLoveMountains.org