Category: Education
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The Problem with Environmental Activism in Appalachia
June 5, 2025: I wrote this not longer after defending my undergraduate thesis on negative environmentalist stereotypes in Appalachia. I later continued this course of study at Virginia Tech as a master’s student in sociology. There, I learned about the non-profit industrial complex and that some larger environmental organizations actually thrive on creating division between…
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Christmas at the Mines
Right after Thanksgiving, everyone at the mines would start getting into the Christmas spirit. Even though we knew it was a month away, we couldn’t wait for the days off to spend with our families. Some of us would bring in ornaments to hang on our equipment, and on some sections, someone would bring a…
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Obama Has Killed Coal
When it comes to money and power, nothing is cut and dry, and it never seems to be in the interest of the working people. After seeing more signs and billboards pointing out specific politicians and agencies for the woes of the Appalachian coal miner, I knew someone wanted me to think a certain way.…
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The Truth About Coal Ash
When I was a kid, they told us about acid rain in school. I even remember seeing a news broadcast in which the reporter, standing in the middle of a cemetery with an umbrella, explained the damage it was causing to the tombstones. The solution was to put scrubbers on all the coal-fired power plants, or…
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Friend of Coal? Read this…
A while ago I decided to do some investigating on who or what “Friends of Coal” was. What I found surprised me (well… not really). Friends of Coal wasn’t a group of coal miners and their families working to help one another during hard times. It was the coal operators. At first glance, their website…
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The Religion of Coal
I usually avoid religion in my posts, but I can no longer ignore how I’ve hearing some folks apply it to coal and coal mining. “If God didn’t want us to use coal, he wouldn’t have put it here!” I’ve heard it a dozen times from friends and family back home.1 It’s even been preached…
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Job Alternatives for Coal Miners
If you ask a coal miner about the “War on Coal,” chances are you’ll get an earful about the EPA, President Obama, and all of the environmentalists who don’t care about coal mining families. You’ll may also hear that “coal mining is all there is” in an area where few living wage job alternatives exist.…
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Are We Ignorant Hillbillies?
Previously titled “Ignorance – Fighting the Appalachian Stereotype” Appalachians have been looked down upon, made fun of, and dehumanized as “uneducated,” “backwards,” or just down right “ignorant.” I myself would often denounce such stereotyping, but as of late I cannot help but acknowledge that many Appalachian people are fulfilling the descriptions placed upon them. The…
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True Appalachians
We are finding more and more ways to overextend ourselves in Appalachia. Our wants create debt; our debts force us to work dangerous environmentally destructive jobs. Nice homes, nice vehicles, nice this…nice that. Happiness is no longer admiring the small things—happiness became what people on TV told us it should be, it became what salesmen…
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How do you convince a coal miner?
People keep asking me, “How do we convince coal miners we need change?” My answers vary from week to week and I do not pretend to be an “expert” on the subject. What I know has come from my own experiences and observations of the many social, economical, and cultural issues impeding change within the…
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Coal Miners are Good People
I’ve often stated that younger coal miners have a tendency to get themselves into large amounts of debt. It’s easy to do when you grow up in a low income household, start making decent money, and your coal company pay stub acts as instant credit with many local banks and auto dealerships. When the coal…
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Coal, Greed, and Maintaining a Captive Generational Workforce
Previously titled “Guess Who Wants Your Kids to Work in a Coal Mine?” There are many resources in Appalachia that make men wealthy. But without people, those resources would stay locked in the ground. After all, no one has been able to design fully autonomous machines to produce coal. Without coal miners the coal industry…
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A Coal Miner’s Health: Short Term Gains and Long Term loss
Coal mining is dangerous work. Spend any length of time talking with a group of underground coal miners and you are sure to hear “war stories” about close calls with severe injury or even death. Every aspect of the job requires a constant vigilance for potential hazards. Countless miners have been killed by collapses…