I am implicated in what goes on in Appalachia because my everyday decisions have far-reaching consequences that I do not necessarily feel. I use fossil fuels that come from places that I have never visited. Power plants that are next to people's homes and mountain-top removal sites that rain debris over entire towns. Paper from timber sales. Oil from wells all over the countryside.
From this first week, it seems that many environmental groups still skirt the idea that humans and nature are interconnected, and always have been. While some groups identify timber as an environmentally sustainable economic venture, other activists criticize its damage to "nature." It seems that Appalachia has a rich history of interactions between humans and the environment that has created a huge amount of knowledge and appreciation among the long-time residents of the region. This interaction has been fucked up by a history of outsider capitalists who did not appreciate the complex relationships that create a healthy environment - i.e. intensive farming, coal mining, unregulated timber sales. Of course, I'm sure it's not that black and white - things never are.
