ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the rhetorical strategies used by Appalachian activists to confront the process of mountaintop removal in the face of numerous rhetorical challenges. It provides a general explanation of what we take to be an important element found in contemporary discourse opposed to the practice of mountaintop removal: the common topic of protection. The chapter explains a text crafted by Appalachian environmental activists opposed to mountaintop removal practices in order to demonstrate how the common topic of protection is brought to place in order to produce anti-mountaintop removal rhetoric. It addresses the rhetorical and political concerns affiliated with using protection to develop arguments for the sanctity of a bounded territory and highlights a potentially useful alternative strategy. The chapter examines the collection of metaphors in a representative text that create two place-based arguments from the common form of protection: "Appalachian Justice" and "Grounded Faith".
