BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

The Bush Administration is THE epitomy of the pre-Civil War mentality of depending upon depletable natural resources to run the American economy -- at any cost.

At any cost to our environment, our health, our safety, our pocket books, and the future of our economy.

"Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future," by Rolling Stone editor Jeff Goodell, reawakens us to the nearly forgotten multiple threats posed by the reckles Bush/Cheney plundering coal policy.

"Our reliance on coal—the unspoken foundation of our "information" economy—has, Goodell says, led to an "empire of denial" that blocks us from the investments necessary to find alternative energy sources that could eventually save us from fossil fuel. Goodell's description of the mining-related deaths, the widespread health consequences of burning coal and the impact on our planet's increasingly fragile ecosystem make for compelling reading, but such commonplace facts are not what lift this book out of the ordinary.

"That distinction belongs to Goodell's fieldwork, which takes him to Atlanta, West Virginia, Wyoming, China and beyond—though he also has a fine grasp of the less tangible niceties of the industry. Goodell understands how mines, corporate boardrooms, commodity markets and legislative chambers interrelate to induce a national inertia. Goodell has a talent for pithy argument—and the book fairly crackles with informed conviction." -- From Publishers Weekly

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS