Reviews for Gold in History, Geology, and Culture: Collected Essays

The average rating for Gold in History, Geology, and Culture: Collected Essays based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-11-23 00:00:00 Lisa Deutsch Some good background information here, definitely a useful read, with old-time history, recent political/corporate history, and a good overview of labor, environmental, and toxic health effects of the coal life cycle from mining to burning. However, after two thirds of the book carefully details all the reasons why the entire process of digging up and burning coal for electricity is fucked, the author caves in to pressure (was he paid off? the last few chapters come out of nowhere) and states that 0 emissions "clean" coal plants can be built today. This just isn't true-- I am doing community organizing in Southeast Ohio, a region where they're trying to build this kind of plant, and I can tell you from firsthand experience that IGCC, carbon sequestration, and undergound mining aren't clean or safe. IGCC concentrates toxins in local water systems instead of dispersing them over a large region in the air. Underground (as opposed to mountain top removal) mining also threatens water and other health/environmental areas, as the coal still must be processed in prep plants that use over 60 toxic chemnicals to make the coal ready to burn. Carbon sequestration (an experimental technology still being experimented nearby where I'm working/living, that buries compressed carbon emissions deep underground) lubricates fault lines, and has the potential of breaking out into the atmosphere where locals could be asphyxiated, not to mention the labor issues of having miners underground in a region destabilized by potential seismic activity from sequestration. And don't count on sequestration being available large-scale anytime soon, either-- it would require massive construction of infrastructure (pipelines) to transport the carbon from power plants to areas where it's safe to sequester it. Coal can't be cleaned, its toxins can only be concentrated. All coal has got to go.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-06-08 00:00:00 James Moore This book was published in 2007 and not a thing that written about in this book has changed in the last eight years.  The coal industry has lied and cheated its way into our daily lives and there is not one thing we can do about it. The power industry does not want to move away from coal because  it is cheap and easy.  Still yet we see how an industry is running the political discourse of how we generate power in this country.  With such political clout as the power companies have we will be a long time in moving away from coal-burning power plants. I keep hearing that there is no reasonable replacement for fossil fuels but if the energy industry continues to fight for the things as they are we will never get ourselves away from fossil fuels.  The next time you see an ad from the energy industry about all they are doing to move toward renewable energy do not be fooled.This review was originally posted on THE PFAEFFLE JOURNAL