Misty taste of moonshine

John Denver sang that West Virginia was almost heaven. And indeed, it's a pretty special place. At least when the fucking coal companies aren't blowing the tops off of the mountains. Mountaintop Removal Mining, or MTR for short, is such a monstrosity, such an abomination, that it's difficult to describe rationally, or without hyperbole. Lives are being destroyed, rivers and creeks poisoned and entirely eliminated, human health sacrificed, cultures and families shattered. All so we can leave our lights on at an artificially cheap price, blast our air conditioners, keep our gigantic flat screen televisions blathering.

What is wrong with us?

Why do we possibly think it acceptable to butcher Appalachia this way, when we would never dream of doing it to New York City, or the Oregon coast?

How many BP oil disasters, Exxon Valdez disasters, Bhopal disasters do we need before we address our addiction to artificially cheap energy and corporate profit?