Extraction Mechanization, Spatial Inequality,
Community Health, & Environmental Justice
Given the prolonged effects of mechanization on job loss throughout the area, many local residents have begun to engage in various grass-roots discussions directed at the institutions responsible ranging from the state, to investment banks and the coal company itself (in this case Alpha Natural Resources formally known as Massey Energy). The work of Bell and York (2007) and Fox (1999) both contend that since the deterioration of the United Mine Workers (UMW), the coal industry has managed to influence environmental policy in such a way that vertical integration to occur between those blowing up the mountain, those transporting it and the companies burning it. This hegemonic alliance has not only permitted the concentration of power but in doing so downplayed the basic rights to water and breathable are.
As displayed by the work of Hendryx (1999, 2002, 2003, 2005), the cancer and mortality rate in these ecological sacrifice zones has seen an exponential effect following the popularization of mountaintop removal contour mining in the early 1990's. His work is a testament to the socio-ecological relations that directly link community health to environmental quality. In some instances, certain hollows have skyrocketed while those maintaining underground mining practices have leveled off. These geographies of extraction can also be viewed longitudinally as the historical inevitability of monopoly capital in a region steeped with both cultural and class divides. To better understand this complex relationship between environment and community resilience, please see the 'data, sources & orthofragments' page.
This leads to the question of spatial inequality in terms of both space, place and quality of life. This page will not engage in moral arguments. However, empirical evidence demands that such a gross inequality in life should not be ignored simply because of location. Furthermore, this is occurring within the largest economic (core) country in the world which suggests that the process of 'internal peripheralization' can transcend both racial and class oriented themes to focus strictly on access to resources. It is the political-economic dimension that takes this understand a step further by recognizing that the freedom enjoyed by the monopoly coal company is an immediate consequence of a system that is not sincerely democratic. The permanent deterioration of the creeks, mountains and communities themselves represents a conflict within the vary way of life enjoyed by many throughout the United States. Coal keeps the lights on, but at what price?
As displayed by the work of Hendryx (1999, 2002, 2003, 2005), the cancer and mortality rate in these ecological sacrifice zones has seen an exponential effect following the popularization of mountaintop removal contour mining in the early 1990's. His work is a testament to the socio-ecological relations that directly link community health to environmental quality. In some instances, certain hollows have skyrocketed while those maintaining underground mining practices have leveled off. These geographies of extraction can also be viewed longitudinally as the historical inevitability of monopoly capital in a region steeped with both cultural and class divides. To better understand this complex relationship between environment and community resilience, please see the 'data, sources & orthofragments' page.
This leads to the question of spatial inequality in terms of both space, place and quality of life. This page will not engage in moral arguments. However, empirical evidence demands that such a gross inequality in life should not be ignored simply because of location. Furthermore, this is occurring within the largest economic (core) country in the world which suggests that the process of 'internal peripheralization' can transcend both racial and class oriented themes to focus strictly on access to resources. It is the political-economic dimension that takes this understand a step further by recognizing that the freedom enjoyed by the monopoly coal company is an immediate consequence of a system that is not sincerely democratic. The permanent deterioration of the creeks, mountains and communities themselves represents a conflict within the vary way of life enjoyed by many throughout the United States. Coal keeps the lights on, but at what price?
WV_MTR Public Research by R.W. Thomson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.