West Virginia is a beautiful state of low mountains and wooded hills and hollows. But in recent years, sections have been scarred and razed, transformed into a barren lunar landscape by a new method of coal mining called “mountain top removal.” Instead of the more labor intensive burrowing deep into the earth, the mining companies are blasting away the surface of land to find the black seams. As a result, forests have been clear-cut along with employment rolls. Coal dust and other toxins have sickened residents. Erosion has brought floods into the valleys.
David Novack’s documentary Burning the Future: Coal in America (out on DVD) examines the response of some West Virginians, especially housewife-turned-activist Maria Gunnoe, that have mobilized against the mines. Coal mining has never been pleasant work without environmental impact, but as the documentary shows, the industry has entered a new, ruinous phase in the name of squeezing great profit from the earth.
Coal generates over half of the electricity used in the U.S., sending carbon into the air and threatening to change the world's climate. Backers of the mining industry, including the Bush administration in power when the film was made, speak of “clean coal” as the solution. Burning the Future views clean coal with skepticism. “Slightly less dirty coal” might be the better name, as one of its activists says.
