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E-M:/ loving mountains, hating coal, and poverty
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Enviro-Mich message from "Anna Dorothy Graham" <grahama9@msu.edu>
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Yes, there's still a good deal of poverty and ignorance in the rural
Appalachian areas, and they've been sold a line about jobs. The local
economy had been heavily dependant on coal mining, when jobs in the mines
used to be the only well-paying jobs in the area. But of course, mountain
top removal eliminates a lot of jobs for less-well-educated folks (even if
they're nasty, dirty and dangerous jobs), and the jobs that replace the
mining jobs are 1) for better-educated sorts, 2) seasonal, or 3) better
suited for college students than people who need to support families.
My memory of the incident involving the baby being killed was that the
family was not a poor, uneducated rural family, but a relatively
well-educated back-to-nature sort -- not that that matters, of course ...
Anna
Larry Nooden writes:
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Enviro-Mich message from Larry Nooden <ldnum@umich.edu>
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The stream beds in these mountain-topped areas are also filled with toxic
minerals running off from the spoils. You can actually see this in the
color of the water. Those minerals must get into local drinking water and
produce some health effects.
The people in these areas seem poorly educated and desperate for jobs even
if they are only sort-term jobs. They seem not to understand the health
implications or the curtailment of future economic activities once the
coal is gone.
Hopefully, Michigan will not contribute this and other derivative
problems.
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Anna Kirkwood Graham, J.D., Ph.D.
"There is no trifling with nature; it is always true, grave and severe; it
is always in the right, and the faults and errors fall to our share."
-- Goethe
==============================================================
ENVIRO-MICH: Internet List and Forum for Michigan Environmental
and Conservation Issues and Michigan-based Citizen Action. Archives at
http://www.great-lakes.net/lists/enviro-mich/
Postings to: enviro-mich@great-lakes.net For info, send email to
majordomo@great-lakes.net with a one-line message body of "info enviro-mich"
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