Thanksgiving Is Ruined

The Personal is Political. The Political is Personal.

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June 30, 2009
 
he's right you know


Last fall, Michael Tomasky included the following footnote in a book review:

. . . Go to the Google Maps homepage, with the view set on "map." In the search bar, type in Whitesville, WV. You'll be automatically directed to a close-in view of that town. Next, zoom the view out two clicks. Now change the view from "map" to "satellite."

You will be stunned by what you see.


Tomasky's review covered a    few      recent      works    about the the mining industry in the USA's Appalachians. He summarized Michael Shnayerson's account of the impact of journalist & author Penny     Loeb's groundbreaking 1997 exposé of the environmental effects of mountaintop mining.

[update 9/17/09:

a/k/a "mountaintop haircuts"   ?]



The text of Loeb's original piece is here. U.S. News & World Report published it with some never-before-seen (by the general public, anyway) and apparently horrifying aerial photos of post-"removal" mountains.

Tomasky's footnote begins with the words:
Today, anyone with a computer can have a look.




The Google Maps image to which his search instructions lead is here.









                                                                                            [More from the eternal reading backlog . . . ]