Environmental activist Dave Cooper will present a multimedia production, "Mountaintop Removal Road Show," at Coastal Carolina University on Monday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The presentation, sponsored by CCU's Sustainability Initiative, will be in room 249 of the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

The Mountaintop Removal Road Show, spotlights "mountaintop removal" mining in a 22-minute slide show with traditional Appalachian music and culture. Coal companies located in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky blast as much as 600 feet off the tops of mountains, then dump the rock and debris into streams. Over 300,000 acres of American hardwood forests have been turned into barren grasslands due to this type of mining. In addition to deforestation, mountaintop mining increases flooding, contaminates drinking water supplies, cracks foundations, and showers nearby towns with dust and noise.

Cooper, a resident of Lexington, Ky., decided to devote his full attention to environmental issues after seeing a mountaintop removal mine on Kayford Mountain in West Virginia. Prior to his environmental work, Cooper worked for 20 years as a mechanical engineer in various industries, most recently at the 3M plant in Cynthiana, Ky., that makes Post-it notes. He is a member of the Sierra Club and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and he worked for a year as a coalfield organizer for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

For more information, call 349-2257.