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Coal River’s Last Mountain

Coal River’s Last Mountain A failed proposal to substitute wind energy for mountaintop removal coal mining provides a valuable case study illustrating the weakness of theoretical approaches that neglect class relations and the analytical strength of Marxist ecology for understanding the processes of environmental degradation. The latter’s strength is shown in its illumination of the ways in which class relations in the coalfields are tied to capitalism’s metabolic rift and how this rift shapes political struggle and developmental path dependencies. Using Marx’s approach of successive abstractions, the interrelated drivers and consequences of mountaintop removal mining in the Coal River Valley are analyzed from three vantage points: the perspective of ecology, of capital, and of human development. The destructiveness involved in this type of coal production reveals the ways in which capitalism depends on an après moi le déluge regime, discounting the future, and thus barring sustainable human development. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Organization & Environment SAGE

Coal River’s Last Mountain

Wishart, Ryan
Organization & Environment , Volume 25 (4): 16 – Dec 1, 2012
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References (113)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© 2012 SAGE Publications
ISSN
1086-0266
eISSN
1552-7417
DOI
10.1177/1086026612466665
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

A failed proposal to substitute wind energy for mountaintop removal coal mining provides a valuable case study illustrating the weakness of theoretical approaches that neglect class relations and the analytical strength of Marxist ecology for understanding the processes of environmental degradation. The latter’s strength is shown in its illumination of the ways in which class relations in the coalfields are tied to capitalism’s metabolic rift and how this rift shapes political struggle and developmental path dependencies. Using Marx’s approach of successive abstractions, the interrelated drivers and consequences of mountaintop removal mining in the Coal River Valley are analyzed from three vantage points: the perspective of ecology, of capital, and of human development. The destructiveness involved in this type of coal production reveals the ways in which capitalism depends on an après moi le déluge regime, discounting the future, and thus barring sustainable human development.

Journal

Organization & Environment – SAGE

Published: Dec 1, 2012

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