In Lost Mountain, Eric Reece really emphasizes on the importance of the variety of both plant and animal lives and the destruction of their environment is so harmful to their existence. He does a great job of showing his personal and emotional views and opinions on the topic of mountain top removal. He went through great stresses of going to places and seeing things first hand. Then, going back later after the "reclamation" of these lands. He did a great job of providing a argument for why the destruction of these environments to be so bad. These arguments being all of the animals and plants, whole ecosystems as wholes are being destroyed never to return to their original state.
Reece uses the destruction of the environment as his main argument. He spent a great deal of time writing about how the mountains were once lush, full of life and the water being blue and pristine. Then, shifting to how they were turned to flat and stripped of life by the mining of the coal. Then, he went on saying how the variety of plant and animal life will never be the same as they once were.
After reading the beginning of the book, by being from northwest West Virginia and seeing a taste of this first hand I feel very strongly about saving the environments of the mountains and keeping them as they are now. There has already been enough damage, and it needs to be stopped before there is nothing left. There are so many people who are worried about making a quick buck and using cheap energy. Which sounds great in theory, but the use of coal isn't really cheap. The destruction of the environment is a huge problem, and we are using up coal faster than mother nature is making it. So really it is not a reusable source of energy as fast as we are using it up.
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Is there a lot of hostility against coal mining in your area? Or is there less because it probably employs many people.
ReplyDeleteI agree that people need to stand back and consider the negative effects coal mining is having on the environment, but, as far as I understand, alternative energy is not as easy as it's made out to be. I like how you said the use of coal isn't cheap, implying that the effects on the environment are costing us more than we realize. You said you have seen this first hand - have you seen the same types of things Reece saw?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and a majority of the class that mountaintop removal needs to be stopped, and that perhaps using coal as an energy source needs to be ended, but a question that keeps popping up in my head is, How do we go about finding another source?
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