
The Violent Remaking of Appalachia - samclemens
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/03/the-violent-remaking-of-appalachia/474603/?single_page=true
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unchocked
Per the article, there's 36,000 coal mining jobs in Appalachia and the four
largest mining companies have a combined market cap of $150M.

We shouldn't call Appalachia "coal country": these are mediocre economic
numbers. The landscape and health of Appalachia is worth more than that, never
mind the grotesque global issues burning coal generates. With renewables
basically at cost parity (even neglecting massive externalities), there is no
economic, environmental or moral reason to oppose just shutting the whole damn
industry down.

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mud_dauber
There's nothing - NOTHING - that would please me more than seeing Appalachia's
coal industry go away. My family just buried an uncle with chronic black lung.
His dying words to my aunt were "Get the autopsy done. Don't let Massey take
away your death benefits."

Thing is, there's nothing in the southern half of the state to replace
$70K/year jobs. Nothing. I understand why the few remaining residents are
hoping for a miracle.

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unchocked
God damn - there's something in my eye...

There's so much to be gained by just, stopping what's going on. Enough surplus
benefit to take care of, if not the communities at least the people. And if we
all drop the magical thinking, it's plainly doable.

I'm sorry about your uncle, in so many ways.

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mud_dauber
That's very much appreciated...

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molecule
Vice's Toxic: West Virginia provides a great visualization of the effects of
mountaintop removal, which, in Appalachia, turns lush mountains into
industrial moonscapes.

[http://www.vice.com/video/toxic-west-
virginia](http://www.vice.com/video/toxic-west-virginia)

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brandmeyer
Hmm. Noscript is flagging that this page's load of youtube is a potential XSS
attack.

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athenot
To get an idea of scale, the mining operations can be seen on the satellite
view of West Virginia on Apple Maps… even when the whole state fits in the
window.

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RhysU
Terrible stuff, yes.

No mention of terrible problems created by the alternatives: Fukushima,
Deepwater Horizon, and Oklahoma's sudden jump in seismic activity.

One could write the same article for any energy source.

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samstave
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1396227/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1396227/)

