We have a lot of coal in America. Coal was discovered in Boone County, West Virginia in 1742(photo). The United States has been mining coal in Appalachia for close to 200 years. Coal has been a way of life for those who live in the hollows, but it has not made them wealthy, in fact, it has impoverished most. Few if any of the coal company headquarters are located in the region. The money made with the coal leaves the region and is not circulated in the local economy, leaving the people dependent on outsiders for jobs, and for their economy.

For a long while we depended on coal burning for our stoves and heat. Then we turned to natural gas. When natural gas became more expensive than coal, we returned to coal in the 1990s. Coal provides about half of all of the electricity in the U.S and we are not alone in our dependence. 41% of global electricity is produced by burning coal (table).

The reason? Coal is the chapest source of power.

Coal is dirty. Coal is not clean. While many are trying to find ways to make coal burn clean, it has not happened yet. The current attempts toward "clean coal" are (in my opinion) crazy. For example, the New York Times reported in September 2009 that the newest way to deter global warming is to capture and bury the carbon dioxide (carbon sequestration) from coal burning plants. As if the ground were dead and was separated from our life on it. All things are connected.

Source: World Coal Institute

In my forays of understanding what we have done to America (that is both the US and Canada) I spent some considerable time in West Virginia in Coal River Valley. There you will find some of the largest mountaintop removal sites in the country.

Airflight for photo courtesy of Southwings.

Unless you know the place and know what you are seeing when you fly over it, you may not get the whole picture of what is happening to the mountains, the streams, the people in this part of Appalachia. It is cheaper to remove the coal by cutting off the tops of the mountains to the first coal seam, and then continue cutting down the mountain, dumping the overburden into the next valley, thereby destroying headwater streams and all the life in them. Brilliant. Sorry to be so subjective, but brilliant.

But it is the cheapest way - IF we operate (as we have been) on measuring cost by economics alone. Let the people pay for the environmental damage (which they do), let them pay for their ruined health (which they do). There is a better way - the Triple bottom line, operating so that the REAL cost of electricity powered by coal is understood. Yes, coal will be more expensive. But it will also reflect the real cost to our country and our people.

I lived among the people of Coal River Valley and I respect their right to a beautiful and healthy environment. They have been robbed of that. The least we can do is turnoff our lights, conserve energy, and save a mountain. The most we can do is stop creating environmental and social devastation and evolve to using renewable sources of energy.