Long dismissed as a relic of a bygone era, coal is back -- with a vengence. Coal is one of the nation's biggest and most influential industries -- Big Coal provides more than half the electricity consumed by Americans today -- and its dominance is growing, driven by rising oil prices and calls for energy independence. Is coal the solution to America's energy problems? On close examination, the glowing promise of coal quickly turns to ash. Coal mining remains a deadly and environmentally destructive industry. Nearly forty percent of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere each year comes from coal-fired power plants. In the last two decades, air pollution from coal plants has killed more than half a million Americans. In this eye-opening call to action, Goodell explains the costs and consequences of America's addiction to coal and discusses how we can kick the habit. Goodell, in this well-written, timely and powerful book, makes it crystal clear what the stakes are The New York Times Fiery and committed The New York Times Book Review The hidden truth about coal is what Jeff Goodell is after in his groundbreaking book. Bookpage [Goodell] turns the light on the coal industry as he tracks the black rock on a bracing, eye-opening journey. Audubon Big Coal gives its readers a clear sense of the tradeoffs we face in our feverish quest for inexpensive energy… The Washington Post Goodell has a talent for pithy argument - and the book fairly crackles with informed conviction. Publishers Weekly, Starred Eye-opening and provocative Kirkus Reviews, Starred Goodell does a first-rate job of balancing environmental concerns with interviews from the human faces associated with "Big Coal" Library Journal JEFF GOODELL is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine . He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith . Goodell’s memoir, Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of a Silicon Valley Family , was a New York Times Notable Book. Big Coal The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future By Jeff Goodell Houghton Mifflin Company Copyright © 2007 Jeff Goodell All right reserved. ISBN: 9780618872244 Introduction One of the triumphs of modern life is our ability to distance ourselves from the simple facts of our own existence. We love our hamburgers, but we've never seen the inside of a slaughterhouse. We're not sure if the asparagus that accompanies our salmon is grown in Ecuador or Oregon. We flush the toilet and don't want to know any more. If we feel bad, we take a pill. We don't even bury our own dead—they are carted away and buried or burned for us. It's easy to forget what a luxury this is—until you visit a place like China. Despite its booming economy in recent years, the insulating walls of modern life have not yet been fully erected there. In restaurants, the entrées are often alive in a cage in the dining room. Herbs and acupuncture needles inspire more faith than pharmaceutical drugs. Toilets stink. In rural areas, running water is a surprise, hot water a thrill. When you flip the switch on the wall and the light goes on, you know exactly what it costs—all you have to do is take a deep breath and feel the burn of coal smoke in your lungs. To a westerner, nothing is more uncivilized than the sulfury smell of coal. You can't take a whiff without thinking of labor battles and underground mine explosions, of chugging smokestacks and black lung. But coal is everywhere in twenty-first-century China. It's piled up on sidewalks, pressed into bricks and stacked near the back doors of homes, stockpiled into small mountains in the middle of open fields, and carted around behind bicycles and old wheezing locomotives. Plumes of coal smoke rise from rusty stacks on every urban horizon. There is soot on every windowsill and around the collar of every white shirt. Coal is what's fueling China's economic boom, and nobody makes any pretense that it isn't. And as it did in America one hundred years ago, the power of coal will lift China into a better world. It will make the country richer, more civilized, and more remote from the hard facts of life, just like us. The cost of the rough journey China is undertaking is obvious. More than six thousand workers a year are killed in China's coal mines. The World Health Organization estimates that in East Asia, a region made up predominantly of China and South Korea, 355,000 people a year die from the effects of urban outdoor air pollution. The first time I visited Jiamusi, a city in China's industrial north, it was so befouled by coal smoke that I could hardly see across the street. All over China, limestone buildings are dissolving in the acidic air. In Beijing, the ancient outdoor statuary at a 700-year-old Taoist temple I visited was encased in Plexiglas to protect it. And it's not just the Chinese