Country's Vocal Advocate

Mountaintop removal, a destructive form of coal mining that levels entire mountains to expose the seams of coal within, has already destroyed more than one million acres of once-majestic Appalachian landscape and threatens the health of the people living there. Mining companies dump trees, debris, and toxic contaminants from destroyed mountains into nearby streams and valleys, polluting drinking water and devastating natural habitats. Country music legend and longtime NRDC supporter Emmylou Harris, a founding member of NRDC's Music Saves Mountains campaign, discusses how she and other artists are working to keep the "country" in country music. You can learn more at musicsavesmountains.org.

What inspired Music Saves Mountains?
Bluegrass, mountain music, and the country music that's popular today   -- you can really trace it all back to the Appalachians, the people who settled there, and the instruments they used. In a sense, this is the mother ground from which this music came. It's really important that these artists -- musicians from different areas of music, but above all country music -- understand the terrible desecration that's happening in the Appalachians, especially in West Virginia and Kentucky. Beyond destroying the environment and the wildlife, mountaintop removal is devastating the people who live on the land. It's something that should be stopped -- stopped yesterday. Once people realize that this is going on in their backyards, I do think there's a good possibility that things will change. But we need to mobilize.

Which of the songs that you perform best expresses your feelings about this place?
There's a song called "The Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia" [by Utah Phillips], which is a poignant story about people who had to leave that area. It was written a long time ago, before mountaintop removal mining, but I hope that when I perform it, it will give me an opening to raise awareness.

What inspires your personal passion for the environment?
It's where we all live! I saw a great bumper sticker once on a vehicle in Nashville. It said, "We all live downstream." Anything that's done, anywhere in the world, can have negative consequences for everyone. We need to be aware that we're caretakers of this extraordinary world that we live in.