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I'm liveblogging during the iLoveMountains.org session at the NetSquared Conference (N2Y3) with Benji Burrell, Technologist, Appalacian Voices. My notes are choppy, but hopefully they will give the gist of the awesome work they are doing.

Mountains are being blown up to get to seams of coal that exist in the tops of mountains. It is cheaper to blow up the mountain, rather than to tunnel through the mountain, or they blow them up because they can't tunnel through. Half of the United States' energy comes from burning coal. Between 7-10% of US electricity comes from coal mined in the Appalachian mountains using mountain-top removal. Some mine sites can be 10,000 acres. Because of mechanization, surface mining doesn't create jobs.

Originally, Appalacian Voices spread the word with piecemeal online information, earned media coverage, and face-to-face organizing by local and regional organizations.

The problem was:
* It is hard to convey the scale of mining, unless you are in a plane. (Southwings will give you a free flight to view the mountaintop removal).
* National face-to-face organizing costs a lot.
* It was missing an online organizing presence
* National legislation needs a national network.

They created iLoveMountains.org, an online resource center and action center, and launched it during Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington D.C. in 2006. They started out with audio and video stories from communities that have been affected by mining, and a map of 470 mountains affected by mountaintop removal. The media section is the most popular area of the site.

They also have a pledge that people can sign to end mountaintop removal. By adding your zip code, you will added to a map of others who have signed up. Also, when you email friends about the campaign, forwardtrack uses the links in your email to keep track of all the people you got to sign up. It tracks 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree connections.

You can also write your representative about the Clean Water Protection Act. It has 139 co-sponsors right now.

They also created an Appalacian Mountaintop Removal layer with Google Earth.

The next step was to provide organizing tools for people who consume the electricity that comes from places where there is mountaintop removal. They had to show it was a national problem.

They created the What's My Connection? campaign. When you put in your zip code and hit a button it will zoom you too a Google Map or Google Earth that shows you all the coal-fired power plants on your power-grid that pull from coal mines that have mountain top removal.

They've also launched America's Most Endangered Mountains that tells positive stories about communities where mining hasn't affected them yet and you can help save these mountains.

They've also launched the iLoveMountains.org Blogger's Challenge. When bloggers sign up, they get their own personal impact map. They also have videos, badges and widgets that you can embed on your site and Bloggers Challenge "White Pages" where you can see blog entries about Mountaintop Removal.

For more information, email Benji Burrell at benji@appvoices.org.