Stephen Dau's The Book of Jonas is a marvelous, lyrical debut that examines the effects of war on everyone involved. Dau weaves together the stories...
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As a child growing up in Kentucky, from a family not dependent upon coal mining, I knew only anecdotally how severe coal mining was on the environment--until I observed, as an adult, the devastation of mountaintop removal as a resident of West Virginia in the mid 1990s. Michael Shnayerson, in a book that rivals the "can't put it down" pace of Dan Brown's novels, has written a compelling and heart-ripping portrait of the callous disregard for the natural and human environment carried out by the coal barons. Although Don Blankenship may be little known beyond Appalachia, the havoc he has wreaked throughout Appalachia should be front page news nationwide. "Coal River" is just the vehicle to expose not only the blatant raping of the environment these soul-less mine owners are carrying out in a part of the country so touched by poverty, yet so much a part of us all; it also reveals the patronization and support given the coal companies by the autonomous and often secretive actions of field bureaucrats of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State's environmental protection agencies. If any hope can be taken from this tragic, though magnificently revealed story, it is the courageous actions of a small, diverse band of locals determined to save their land and their people. Shnayerson depicts their standoffs with Governor Manchin and Senator Byrd in words that, most appropriately, are reserved for heroes. "Coal River" stands side-by-side with Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", Harry Caudill's "Night Comes to The Cumberlands", and Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" as a call to action, and is a must-read for us all.
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Coal River by Michael Shnayerson
seminolewa, December 5, 2008
As a child growing up in Kentucky, from a family not dependent upon coal mining, I knew only anecdotally how severe coal mining was on the environment--until I observed, as an adult, the devastation of mountaintop removal as a resident of West Virginia in the mid 1990s. Michael Shnayerson, in a book that rivals the "can't put it down" pace of Dan Brown's novels, has written a compelling and heart-ripping portrait of the callous disregard for the natural and human environment carried out by the coal barons. Although Don Blankenship may be little known beyond Appalachia, the havoc he has wreaked throughout Appalachia should be front page news nationwide. "Coal River" is just the vehicle to expose not only the blatant raping of the environment these soul-less mine owners are carrying out in a part of the country so touched by poverty, yet so much a part of us all; it also reveals the patronization and support given the coal companies by the autonomous and often secretive actions of field bureaucrats of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State's environmental protection agencies. If any hope can be taken from this tragic, though magnificently revealed story, it is the courageous actions of a small, diverse band of locals determined to save their land and their people. Shnayerson depicts their standoffs with Governor Manchin and Senator Byrd in words that, most appropriately, are reserved for heroes. "Coal River" stands side-by-side with Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", Harry Caudill's "Night Comes to The Cumberlands", and Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" as a call to action, and is a must-read for us all.(26 of 26 readers found this comment helpful)