Do we really want to keep blasting the tops off mountains, destroying forests and dumping the rubble into waterways, in order to extract and burn coal that is messing up the climate?

For now, the answer to that question is yes, despite vigorous efforts by environmentalists and activists in Appalachia to stop mountaintop removal mining. Some are behind a bill in Congress sponsored by Lamar Alexander, a Republican, to end the practice. Others are calling on big banks -- in particular JP Morgan Chase -- to stop financing mountaintop mining.

The pressure on JP Morgan Chase is coming from activist groups including the Sierra Club, the Rainforest Action Network and an Appalachian group called Climate Ground Zero which calls itself an "ongoing campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience in southern West Virginia to address mountaintop removal coal mining." All are stepping up their efforts in advance of JP Morgan Chase's annual shareholder meeting on May 18. They plan to release a list of the worst funders of MTRmining before then, and chances are Chase will be at or near the top.

What's wrong with mountaintop removal mining? Lots. Here's an overview from a coalition of anti-mining groups. This article from Science magazine (payment required) takes a more dispassionate view and concludes that it is difficult, if not impossible, to mitigate the damage caused by clearing forests, exploding the tops of mountains and choking streams with rocks and dirt. The scientists say:

current attempts to regulate MTM/VF ["mountaintop removal mining with valley fills"] practices are inadequate. Mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance of scientific evidence that impacts are pervasive and irreversible and that mitigation cannot compensate for losses.

This is not an activist group speaking. This is a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

JP Morgan Chase says all the right things when it comes to the environment. For example:

Our goal is to make a positive contribution to sustainability by integrating environmental principles into our business model.

And

JPMorgan Chase will assume a leadership role in the financial services industry by helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our value chain

But the record does not support this overblown rhetoric. According to the many activists (see this and this and this), who cite data from Bloomberg, JP Morgan Chase has  been a major financier of MTR mining, as recently in 2008 and 2009. In 2008, JP Morgan acted as lead manager (with UBS) on a $690 million bond offering and $234 million stock offering by the now-notorious Massey Energy, the largest MTR producer of coal and a company with a terrible environmental and safety record. Massey, of course, operates the Upper Big Branch deep mine in West Virginia where 29 miners died last month in the worst U.S. mine disaster in decades.

In 2009, JP Morgan helped Arch Coal, the second-biggest coal company in the U.S., raise $600 million, according to JP Morgan's War on Nature, an article in Mother Jones by Andy Kroll. Arch Coal, the article says, "mined 4.7 million tons of coal using MTR" in 2009 alone and has for a decade been trying to develop an MTR operation called Spruce that, as originally planned, would have been the largest ever. (Currently, less than 10% of Arch's coal production comes from Appalachia.) Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley also participated in the deal with Arch, according to an industry source who asked not to be identified.

I spoke last week to Mike Roselle, who helped start the Rainforest Action Network and now leads Climate Ground Zero, which is based in West Virginia coal country. The group has organized more than a dozen nonviolent protests at coal mines, at the U.S. EPA and at the offices of West Virginia environmental regulators. (Or should I say "regulators"?) Mike and his allies have been arrested, they have served jail time and they have been condemned as "domestic terrorists" by Massey. Ken Ward, the outstanding environmental reporter at the Charleston Gazette, has written extensively about the protests at his Coal Tattoo blog.

Climate Ground Zero has just launched an online campaign called Mountains Rule, asking supporters to close their Chase bank account, take video of the experience, promote the campaign on social media and spread the word by wearing this campaign badge.

"Ultimately, we have to go after their customer base -- the people who have accounts in their bank and the people who use Chase credit cards," Roselle told me. "This is something that our allies can do in their neighborhoods, without having to come down to West Virginia."