[Old School]

I will have to disagree Google Earth is not up to date as you say, according to their own web site and Question No. 3 anyways which states "Google Earth aquires the best imagery available, most of which is one to three years old. I know of one area that is now four years old. Question No. 4 on Google Earth also states the information in Google Earth is collected over time and is not "real time" in nature. I also checked out the page on Island Creek Ky. mine site located in Pike County and the page on Lost Mountain mine site located in Perry County Ky. and I found something odd between the two sites they both showed the same and only reclaimation photo, kind of odd don't you think, is it just a mistake or was it intentional. What other erroneous information are the anti-coal people giving the public?

I went back to Google Earth again and scanned the Eastern Ky area and every mine site that I clicked on has been either shaded white or tinted, and I don't care what you say you can not tell how a mine site has been reclaimed in those photographs. I also zoomed up on several areas including towns, mine sites, my home I even zoomed up on the Marsh Fork Elem. and I couldn't get close enough to see the silos behind the school, I know their there but the photo was to blurry and Karford Mtn. there is no way you could make anything out without knowing what is actually there. Since the anti-coal people are the ones working on this, here's a question for you. Why are the mine sites whited out or a tint added to them? Wasn't the purpose of the web site to show everyone what these mining sites actually looked like? Are the anti-coal groups trying to cover things they don't want the public to see like good reclaimation area?

One more item and I'm calling it a night. The following is a true story. A good friend of mine who by the way was a environmentalist (believe it or not) was couriousabout what went on behind closed doors at a anti-mining meeting being sponsored by a local environmental group. As these anti-coal people came up one by one and told their stories or shared their photographs, a man from the Western part of the U.S. wanted to share some photographs that he had take a few days before. After showing the active mine photo's he started showing some photographs of reclaimed areas, this man was told by the group that they never show pictures of reclaimed mine areas. Why are anti-coal people afraid to show good reclaimation pictures to the public? Why won't anti-coal groups place good reclaimation pictures on their web sites and in their hand outs?