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
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>the</strong> carbon connection S 115<br />
dams break on some dark rainy night, those below will have little<br />
if any warning before <strong>the</strong> deluge hits.<br />
Jack is our guide <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> devastation. In a fl at, unemotional<br />
mono<strong>to</strong>ne he explains what we are seeing below. Aside from <strong>the</strong><br />
destruction <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Appalachian forest, <strong>the</strong> math <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> reengineered<br />
mountain remnants, he explains, is all wrong. The slopes are <strong>to</strong>o<br />
steep, <strong>the</strong> slurry impoundments <strong>to</strong>o large. The angles <strong>of</strong> slope, <strong>the</strong><br />
weight against <strong>the</strong> dams, and <strong>the</strong> proximity <strong>of</strong> houses and <strong>to</strong>wns are<br />
<strong>the</strong> geometry <strong>of</strong> tragedies <strong>to</strong> come. Spadaro points out <strong>the</strong> Marsh<br />
Fork Elementary School situated close <strong>to</strong> a coal loading operation<br />
and below a huge impoundment back up in <strong>the</strong> hollow. In <strong>the</strong> event<br />
<strong>of</strong> a dam failure, <strong>the</strong> evacuation plan calls for <strong>the</strong> principal, using a<br />
bullhorn, <strong>to</strong> sound <strong>the</strong> alarm and begin <strong>the</strong> evacuation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> children<br />
ahead <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 50-foot wall <strong>of</strong> slurry that will be moving <strong>to</strong>ward<br />
<strong>the</strong>m at upwards <strong>of</strong> 60 miles an hour. If all works according <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
<strong>of</strong>fi cial evacuation plan, <strong>the</strong>y will have two minutes <strong>to</strong> get <strong>to</strong> safety,<br />
but once out <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> school <strong>the</strong>re is no safe place for <strong>the</strong>m <strong>to</strong> go.<br />
So it is in <strong>the</strong> coalfi elds—ruin at a scale for which <strong>the</strong>re are<br />
no adequate words; ecological devastation <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> far horizon <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>to</strong>pography and time. We say that we are fi ghting for democracy<br />
elsewhere, but no one in Washing<strong>to</strong>n or Charles<strong>to</strong>n seems aware<br />
that we long ago deprived some <strong>of</strong> our own <strong>the</strong> rights <strong>to</strong> life,<br />
liberty, and property.<br />
On <strong>the</strong> circle back <strong>to</strong> Yeager fi eld in Charles<strong>to</strong>n, Tom Hyde,<br />
<strong>the</strong> Wal-Mart at<strong>to</strong>rney, calls <strong>the</strong> devastation “tragic.” We all nod,<br />
knowing <strong>the</strong> word does not quite describe <strong>the</strong> enormity <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> things we’ve just seen or <strong>the</strong> cold-blooded nature <strong>of</strong> it. In<br />
our one-hour fl ight we saw maybe 1 percent <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> destruction<br />
now metastasizing through four states. Until recently it was all<br />
but ignored by <strong>the</strong> national media. We have known <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> costs<br />
<strong>of</strong> mining at least since Harry Caudill published Night Comes <strong>to</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> Cumberlands in 1963, but we have yet <strong>to</strong> summon <strong>the</strong> moral<br />
energy <strong>to</strong> resolve <strong>the</strong> problem or pay <strong>the</strong> full costs <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> allegedly<br />
cheap electricity that we use.