In last week’s cover story, Sam Witt peered inside local painter Edward Thomas’ mind and found there a pronounced anti-development motivation. Quixotic though it may be, the artist has a feeling that, as Witt puts it, "if you paint something well enough, you can save it." And so there’s Thomas, out in the parking lots and alleys of Charlottesville, painting what he’d like to save—places that may soon disappear.
Meanwhile, not so far away, things even bigger than city neighborhoods are disappearing. I don’t think I’ll ever get over my simple disbelief that mountaintop-removal coal mining actually occurs—that it’s an idea with any life at all. But boy, does it have life. By 2010, according to one estimate I read, we will have mined more mountaintop acreage than the entire state of Delaware. I imagine most people reading this know what mountaintop removal (MTR) is, but if not, here’s the quick version: Blow top off mountain. Dump huge resulting pile of rock and soil into valley. Take out coal.
The long version involves clear-cutting, slurry ponds, massive explosions, and airborne coal dust, among other things. Not to get all Wendell Berry on you, but a society that would do this to its landscape is completely bankrupt.
A small part of the big political puzzle around MTR changed earlier this month, when the Bush administration made the "dump rock and soil into valley" part of the process a little easier for the coal companies. It’s one of many last-minute pranks they’re pulling before Obama takes office.
Thanks, Bushies! Don’t let the door hit you in the ass. As for those of you as disturbed as I am about the dismantling of the landscape, let’s all resolve to do two things. 1) Notice the mountains more, in the spirit of Edward Thomas’ idea that "Everything has a soul, if you study it hard enough." 2) Keep Obama and his folks on task as they assume stewardship of our beautiful home.
Thoughts? What would you say to Obama about coal mining, if you were having coffee with him right now?
