With recent news-making accidents and tragic deaths, coal mining practices are, thankfully, in the news. An Orion article and a newly published book, Lost Mountain : a Year in the Vanishing Wilderness : Radical Strip Mining and Devastation of Appalachia, both authored by Erik Reece, help readers understand the human and ecological concerns. It’s time to be outraged.
An abridged version of Reece’s article, “Moving Mountains : Will Justice Have Its Day in Coal Country?” is published on the Orion website. The full article can be found in the January-February issue of Orion – on newsstands now.
Reece’s newly published book, Lost Mountain : a Year in the Vanishing Wilderness : Radical Strip Mining and the Devastation of Appalachia, looks at the “radical strip mining” that is “destroying one of America’s most precious natural resources and the communities that depend on it.” Reece spent a year “witnessing the systematic decimation of a single mountain,” the mountain he’s named “Lost Mountain.” Kentucky born and the son of a coal worker, Reece shares the dangers to people and the environment from corporate and government greed and neglect. See the Riverhead website for more information.
“Not since the glaciers pushed toward these ridgelines a million years ago have the Appalachian Mountains been as threatened as they are now.” – from “Moving Mountains : Will Justice Have Its Day in Coal Country?” by Erik Reece, Orion January-February 2006
Related Website
Mountain Justice Summer
http://mountainjusticesummer.org/
“Mountain Justice Summer is a call to action and a request for help from the people of the Appalachia mountains for help in saving our mountains, streams–and forest from greedy coal companies.” (from website)
