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More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Futureby Jeff Goodell
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:In the tradition of Rachel Carson and Eric Schlosser, the veteran journalist Jeff Goodell examines the danger behind President George W. Bush's recent assertion that coal is America's economic destiny. Despite a devastating, century-long legacy that has claimed millions of lives and ravaged the environment, coal has become hot again, and will likely get hotter. In this penetrating analysis, Goodell debunks the faulty assumptions underlying coal's revival and shatters the myth of cheap coal energy. In a compelling blend of hard-hitting investigative reporting, history, and industry assessment, Goodell illuminates the stark economic imperatives America faces and the collusion of business and politics (what is meant by big coal) that have set us on the dangerous course toward reliance on this energy source. Few of us realize that even today we burn a lump of coal every time we flip on a switch. Coal already supplies more than half the energy needed to power our iPods, laptops, lights: anything we use that consumes electricity. Our desire to find a homegrown alternative to Mideast oil, the rising cost of oil and natural gas, and the fossil fuel-friendly mood in Washington will soon push our coal consumption through the roof. Because we have failed to develop alternative energy sources, coal has effectively become the default fuel for the twenty-first century. Review:"After a generation out of the spotlight, coal has reasserted its centrality: the United States 'burn[s] more than a billion tons' per year, and since 9/11 and the Iraq war, independence from foreign oil has become positively patriotic. Rolling Stone contributing editor Goodell's last book, the bestselling Our Story, was about a mine accident, which clearly made a deep impression on him. Our reliance on coal — the unspoken foundation of our 'information' economy — has, Goodell says, led to an 'empire of denial' that blocks us from the investments necessary to find alternative energy sources that could eventually save us from fossil fuel. Goodell's description of the mining-related deaths, the widespread health consequences of burning coal and the impact on our planet's increasingly fragile ecosystem make for compelling reading, but such commonplace facts are not what lift this book out of the ordinary. That distinction belongs to Goodell's fieldwork, which takes him to Atlanta, West Virginia, Wyoming, China and beyond — though he also has a fine grasp of the less tangible niceties of the industry. Goodell understands how mines, corporate boardrooms, commodity markets and legislative chambers interrelate to induce a national inertia. Goodell has a talent for pithy argument — and the book fairly crackles with informed conviction. (June 8)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"In January, the nation watched, transfixed, as 13 coal miners were trapped underground at West Virginia's Sago mine, only to learn that all but one had perished. That same month, four other men lost their lives in Appalachian mines. Five more miners were killed in May in an underground blast in southeastern Kentucky, bringing this year's fatalities to more than 30 and adding to a mining-related death... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Review:"Goodell injects relevant statistics...that effectively personalize the reader's connection to an industry most ignore until a power outage." Booklist Review:"Without overloading the reader...Goodell does a first-rate job of balancing environmental concerns with interviews from the human faces associated with 'Big Coal'....Highly recommended..." Library Journal Review:"Goodell is right to say that the coal economy is little documented and not well understood, but his book makes a welcome corrective. Eye-opening and provocative." Kirkus Reviews Review:"Mr. Goodell, in this well-written, timely and powerful book, makes it crystal clear what the stakes are." William Grimes, The New York Times About the AuthorJeff Goodell is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith, based on the terrifying hours nine Quecreek miners spent trapped underground; he appeared on Oprah to talk with the miners about their experience. Goodell's first book, The Cyberthief and the Samurai, was about the hunt for the notorious computer hacker Kevin Mitnick. His memoir, Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of a Silicon Valley Family, was a New York Times Notable Book. Table of Contents'Introduction xi I THE DIG 1. The Saudi Arabia of Coal 3 2. Coal Colonies 21 3. Dogholes 48 4. The Carbon Express 74 II THE BURN 5. Infinite Needs 97 6. The Big Dirty 119 7. "A Citizen Wherever We Serve" 147 III THE HEAT 8. Reversal of Fortune 173 9. The Coal Rush 202 10. The Frontier 226 Epilogue: An Empire of Denial 249 Acknowledgments 259 Notes 263 Index 297\n ' What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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