You are using Internet Explorer 8 to view this site. IE8 is a 6-year-old browser that does not display modern web sites properly. Please upgrade to a newer browser to make best use of this site. Contact your local library branch if you require assistance. For more information, see this FAQ page.
On April 5, 2010, an explosion ripped through Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine, killing twenty-nine coal miners. This tragedy was the deadliest mine disaster in the United States in forty years--a disaster that never should have happened. These deaths were rooted in the cynical corporate culture of Massey and its notorious former CEO Don Blankenship, and were part of a cycle of poverty, exploitation, and environmental abuse that has dominated Appalachia since coal was first discovered there. And the cycle continues unabated as coal companies bury the most insidious dangers deep underground and hide the true costs. But the disaster goes beyond West Virginia. It casts a global shadow, calling into bitter question why coal miners in the United States are sacrificed to erect cities on the other side of the world, and how the world's voracious appetite for energy is satisfied at such horrendous cost.--From publisher description.