There's been a quiet protest happening in the trees of Appalachia. Now, it's catching on.

When Abigail peeks out from her perch — a wooden platform dangling high in a tree on a mountain ridge in West Virginia — she sees a nearly picture-perfect landscape.

She points out roaming farm animals and watches cars drive the few country roads that border the Jefferson National Forest. "The sunsets are incredible," Abigail describes. "And it’s pretty peaceful when the winds aren’t too strong."

The view from Abigail's tree platform. Photo courtesy of Appalachians Against Pipelines.

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A Virginia man responds thoughtfully when asked if immigrants are taking coal jobs.

Meet Nic Smith. He's got some powerful things to say.

Nic, who works at a Waffle House in Virginia, comes from a long line of union coal miners. His grandfathers were coal miners. His great-grandfathers were coal miners. Cousins, uncles, you name it. However, the coal industry has been shedding jobs for a while now. And, while President-elect Donald Trump has promised to bring all those coal jobs back, Nic isn't buying it.

In the video below, he lays out the facts pretty clearly as to why. Really bluntly.

If you don't have time to watch all of his powerful answers, here are the highlights of what Nic had to say:

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Turning coal country into tech country shows the power of Kentuckians working together.

Coding might become the new mining.

When you think of places where technology rules, does rural eastern Kentucky come to mind?

When I think tech, I think Silicon Valley — an area that's such a tech bubble (and occasionally a parody of itself), there's even a TV show about it. And then you have other obvious hubs: the New Yorks, L.A.s and Tokyos of the world. The tech world loves cities.

GIF via "Silicon Valley"/HBO.

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