Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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<strong>the</strong> carbon connection S 113<br />
If this were not enough, <strong>the</strong> evidence now shows a strong<br />
likelihood that sea levels will rise more rapidly than previously<br />
thought. The Third Assessment Report <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Intergovernmental<br />
Panel on Climate Change in 2001 predicted less than a onemeter<br />
rise in <strong>the</strong> 21st century, but more recent estimates put this<br />
fi gure higher as a result <strong>of</strong> accelerated melting <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Greenland<br />
ice sheet and polar ice along with <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>rmal expansion <strong>of</strong> water<br />
(Overpeck et al., 2006; U.S. Climate Change Science Program,<br />
2009; Smith et al., 2009; McKie, 2009).<br />
Nine hundred miles <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> nor<strong>the</strong>ast <strong>of</strong> New Orleans as a sober<br />
crow would fl y it, Massey Energy, Arch Coal, and o<strong>the</strong>r companies<br />
are busy leveling <strong>the</strong> mountains <strong>of</strong> Appalachia <strong>to</strong> get at <strong>the</strong><br />
upper seams <strong>of</strong> coal in what was one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> least disturbed forests<br />
in <strong>the</strong> United States and one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> most diverse ecosystems anywhere.<br />
Throughout <strong>the</strong> coalfi elds <strong>of</strong> West Virginia and Kentucky<br />
<strong>the</strong>y have already leveled 500 mountains, give or take a few, across<br />
1.5 million acres, and <strong>the</strong>y intend <strong>to</strong> destroy a good bit more.<br />
These companies wash coal on-site, leaving billions <strong>of</strong> gallons <strong>of</strong><br />
a dilute asphalt-like gruel laced with <strong>to</strong>xic fl occulants and heavy<br />
metals. An estimated 225 such containment ponds are located over<br />
abandoned mines in West Virginia, held back from <strong>the</strong> communities<br />
below only by ear<strong>the</strong>n dams prone <strong>to</strong> failure ei<strong>the</strong>r by <strong>collapse</strong><br />
or by draining down through <strong>the</strong> old mine tunnels that honeycomb<br />
<strong>the</strong> region. One <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se dams failed on Oc<strong>to</strong>ber 11, 2000,<br />
in Martin County, Kentucky, when <strong>the</strong> slurry broke through a<br />
thin layer <strong>of</strong> shale in<strong>to</strong> mines and <strong>the</strong>n in<strong>to</strong> hundreds <strong>of</strong> miles <strong>of</strong><br />
streams and rivers. The result was <strong>the</strong> permanent destruction <strong>of</strong><br />
waterways and <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> property values <strong>of</strong> people living in <strong>the</strong> wake<br />
<strong>of</strong> an ongoing and mostly ignored disaster. This is typical <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
coalfi elds. They are a third-world colony within <strong>the</strong> United States,<br />
a national sacrifi ce zone in which fairness, decency, and <strong>the</strong> rights<br />
<strong>of</strong> old and young alike are discarded as unnecessary on behalf <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> national obsession with “cheap” electricity.<br />
Jack Spadaro is a heavyset, rumpled, and bearded man with <strong>the</strong><br />
knack for describing outrageous things calmly and with clinical