LEAF (Lindquist Environmental Appalachian Fellowship), American
Natural Resources Defense Council, American
Only God Should Move Mountains. Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining of the Appalachians, 2009
LEAF, a small Tennessee-based environmental coalition used this advertisement to promote their work of mobilizing Christians against mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. The text of their message is clear and accompanies a prominent image on the left side of the billboard of an autumn dusk in the mountains. The otherwise idyllic image is interrupted by a gulf in the center of the image where blasted rock and roads have destroyed and displaced the mountains. Though this image does not treat the more dire human costs of mountaintop removal, it is notable that no human beings are present in the image. This billboard serves as a direct counter to coal-industry messaging (also commonly using billboards) that coal extraction provides jobs. Mountaintop removal provides polluting fossil fuel not without first destroying mountains and creating toxic byproducts that pollute community water supplies and for whose benefit? Label by Morgan Brittain