Soledad O'Brien's piece on mountaintop removal is now up online with the troubling title, "Steady job or healthy environment: What would you choose?"
How about both? The mono-economy of coal is not exactly a sustainable development plan, despite what the industry would have you believe.
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ms wellington includes statistics on jobs, economic conditions and health issues, along with other relevant information about those who support the coal companies fights against regulation, as she explains her message that the coal-mining controversies are not about choosing between jobs and health hazards. she points out that the ratio becomes two or three lives for each job.
what isn't in this article is the choice made by the politicians around the country between the lives lost and the ever-increasing demand for energy to remain as low-cost to corporations as possible, in spite of the costs in lives, health, planet damage, and support of criminal actions; each of these could be better if instead they would support means to reduce energy use, alternate sources, cooperative planning, and new technology to supply percentages of energy needs.