organic farming, and this is a very interesting argument, can you produce enough organic material to fertilize your land with simply plant material? and i've read argument on both -- arguments on both sides. but the bulk of evidence seems so today -- say that you really need that animal manure. ..

my opinion. it's a great debate. >> thanks again. today you told us that this industry is a very vertical he organized. and what i remember from your radio remarks, and advertisement was made made where the footage for cattle scenes was filmed in new zealand to represent what goes on here. i'd like you to tell us, were on this hierarchy in the industry are the profits? and to what extent can these

profits -- are they -- to what extent are they used to hire armies of public relations advertising, lobbyists, to the extent that if, if the documentary comes out, let's say a film version of your book comes out which maybe has already, -- [laughter] >> are you listening, hollywood? >> what arsenal is there on the part of the industry to combat perceptions distributed by a film to make the case like when i was a kid we had elsie the cow and all these romantic ideas about how far animals are part of progress, you know. i think cheap and readily available food like the counter image to the empty shelves and the soviet union, you know, and we're supposed to be very proud of the fact that our shelves are always full of this stuff

because we americans are a very -- i mean, we are a very deserving and prosperous people. and this is part of our, you know, what do they call it? our heritage, our right to abundance, you know? and since we have a right to abundance and comfort and all this, you know, like it could be said that factory farms, with all the evil they represent in your book, are really part of delivering a better life to america. you know? >> like i said at the beginning they are phenomenal and they can raise animals very fast, relatively cheaply. and that each people and that's a powerful argument. but if i can just me to address a couple of things. >> my point is, that so much of

what is menacing us today, as you say, the looming threat, so much was originally an idea developed as progress in delivering a better life to america. >> isn't that always the case? >> it's like our problems always had their start in some utopian notion. >> well, eating a hungry world is a wonderful goal. i'm not opposed to that at all. that's why i don't think it will go away. people to demand cheap food. but those profits to their not going to farmers. and they're not staying in the local communities. they don't create lots of jobs. the agriculture industry boasts that 2% of the population raises 100% of the food. in the recession and job crisis, what other industry runs around bragging about how few people. what if 4% of the population?

you could have twice as many farms. the profits go right to the top. they are hurting right now. the dairy companies are hurting. partly because nobody oversees the products. that's a real problem. >> is an umbrella organization that represents all the members of this industry, kind of a lobbying -- >> there's the farm bureau association is probably one, the animal agricultural alliance which i quote extensively in my book, probably the most of surfers trade representative. farm bureau estimates of the represents all farmers. their policies intended favorite the producers. but again it's the stockholders, europe, and they demand returns. the big stores demand the cheapest, cheapest product they can. so we are all implicated in the system. every time you got looking for cheap food, which is

understandable, you are produced by the end that. the people who supplied the big stores, have to get that price down so low that they have no choice but to use the growth hormones and cram 1000 adult into a single building. the new zealand, if you're prepping to california, central not worth the money were based in the hot sun all day long and the cows come and grind it up into ground pcs that just blows away into the air and people -- i get sick from breathing it. these are cows kept by the tens of thousands. nothing like to see in a commercial. they are now filling those commercials in new zealand i think symbolically as pretty stupid. it's cheaper to film there. sonoma county where my parents live now, they have dairies that look just like in the

commercials. the happy cows and everything. smack i think just one more. >> i came to this country about 30 something years ago. and my first impression was of total discussed at the amount of food people consume in this country. food is supposed to help us to live. we don't live to eat. that's one thing. second, the way we treat the animals is unconscionable. we are going to pay very dearly for that, and very soon. because people are getting sick, how can i say, it is making all kinds of experiments, all kind of question. and i'm not talking about genetically modified. i'm talking about mixing genes from different species. that is horrid. >> well, i think it just takes

against to mother nature will only let her laws be broken for so long. it comes back to ask. >> that we need to dispel this tremendous ignorance. people don't know where their food comes from. 90% of the people i know, americans, they don't know how to cook. they have no idea. there are some foreigners in my neighborhood that know how to cook. anyway, i had a tremendous discussion with a person, and the discussion was about his -- the chicken has four legs. and i was the idiot ignorant telling him the chicken has two legs. and he was trying to tell me the chicken has a four legs otherwise it would've on its face. [laughter] >> i listen. that was my very, very shortest

date in the last couple of years. anyway -- [laughter] >> we had to learn to search. our only hope i think in this country is our children. went to teach them about food. we have to teach the children where things come from. the work and it applies and they have to do. they have to make it. you have to cook. okay. that's about all. >> a question over here. >> i haven't read your book yet. i'm looking forward to it, but decided buying a book, reading your book, having you sign it, eating organic even though organic does have to be transported, but at least when you're eating it your not helping as much as pesticide ridden product due to pollute

rivers and streams. at least that's i rationalize it, and reducing our consumption of meat. what are two or three concrete steps that each of us can take to have an impact on the food supply chain? for example, i was hoping to be able to launch a campaign to have mcdonald's say that they would only buy, if not organic meat, beef that didn't have antibiotics -- >> they have done that actually spirit but is that really true? i wasn't sure if it was to. >> they have done it. industry does respond to consumers. and we had this discussion about individual responsibility versus public and trying to change the big ship, as opposed to your own little go cart that you live your life in. and i think you have to have both of them. you know, you say foreign policy and you can just.

people, the glaze on and on their eyes. this is not a particularly sexy issue, but things like the farm bill are hugely important. that decides who gets the subsidies and who doesn't. as i talked about today, i really think everybody should get involved as a general rule. that's more than just letterwriting. that's raising money, but the letterwriting really does work. these elected officials, you know, if they got 50 letters pro and 100 letters against, well, i'm going to vote against. there's a lot legislation going around washington right now and in state capital, both good and bad, of what i think is good is an antibiotic banned. if you're concerned about mrsa and concerned about antibiotics give the producers unfair advantage, then you might want to lobby for passage of that bill.

on the other side there's a bill being passed around that would make my new or a hazardous substance under the superfund. so that, if this law were to pass that farmer would never, ever be held liable or not have to spend a penny to cleanup the mess. that bill is being sponsored by blanche lincoln of arkansas who may not win reelection. she is all kinds of problems down there. that she is a democrat, you know. and she wants to give farms permanent exemption from liability. and once they have that exemption, what motivation is there to keep it in shape. so these are very, very sirs problems. again, as much as you want to rein in the case for you really want to make playing field more level for the small producer. you want to encourage them to

get in the market. that's what i said why not have 4% farmers produce our food? talk about an economic stimulus. give me 40 acres and a mule and it will give these young families a start to become farmers. that would be a wonderful full employment plan. so three concrete things, you know, i think shocked conscientiously, keep yourself informed of what's going on in washington on foreign policy, and we live in new york's we don't have that day-to-day interaction with county officials and farmers. but if you know people who live in rural areas, they need to organize and they need to speak out and they need if you like they have support from people, the cities who are buying the food. there such a divide in this country between rural and urban, as we know, between red states and blue states. we don't talk to each other.

and i found out that people who are on farms are really nice people. and they think we are really nice people. it's a tough, and i wish i had a quick easy answer for you, but consume well, in themselves and get on the phone and call your lawmakers. than you very much. [applause] >> david kirby also wrote "evidence of harm," it does so on the reported link between vaccinations and autism. he has been a regular contributor to the "huffington post" since 2005. for more about the author and his books, go to animalfactorybook.com.

>> jeff biggers, member of the coal free future project, presents the history of coal mining and and social struggle on it in the american midwest. he contends the history of coal production in this country is marked by the displacement of native american slavery, unsafe work conditions and environment of segregation. this event is about an hour. >> good evening. welcome. the finest independent bookstore in the southeast. [cheers and applause] >> well, on this ground on tuesday evening, i am very pleased to see such a turnout as so many of y'all have emerged on your respective winter holes, to come out and attend this author event this evening.

good show. in the interest of full disclosure, i should admit that jeff biggers is a personal friend of mine, and a fellow banjo picker. and as well as he was a discerning reader of and an inexhaustible cheerleader for my memoir, mayhem and mayberry. and i'm grateful for him for that. but that is not why we are gathered here tonight. jeff has a soulmate relationship, if you will, with the southern appalachian region in general, and with asheville in particular. he forged this relationship through his extraordinary efforts, dedicated to preserving our region's unique biodiversity, heritage, and sense of community.

i think his best selling book, the subtitle relatives best selling book, the united states of appalachia said it all, southern mountaineers brought independence, culture, and enlightenment to america. but that is not why we are gathered here today. we are gathered here today to hear jeff's own story about his own struggle to reclaim his family's southern illinois heritage, a heritage plundered and virtually erased by big coal. his new book, "reckoning at eagle creek: the secret legacy of coal in the heartland," is at once and intensely tale of loss and redemption, as well as an

utterly convincing condemnation of the coal industries of salt on the land, the people, and the history of entire bio regions within our country and across the globe. we are truly blessed tonight to be in the presence of a master storyteller, a street fighter for social justice, a brilliant and witty critic with a heart too big to fail. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome award-winning author and social historian, jeff biggers. [applause] >> what brian did and is that brian just about ruined my career. because a few years ago, i sat down with a mountain of research in a decade of research i was

going to do to bring back southern illinois lorry into america's expense, and i sat down to write my book and he sent me his manuscript to read. and it was this manuscript called mayhem in mayberry. and, of course, i put it aside because you not supposed to read books while you're writing books but i had to take it be because brian had written the book. i couldn't forget i started writing and i got this is so funny. there's our amazing stories of what went on in western north carolina, what went on, something that even thomas wolfe could never have written about in asheville. i don't know if brian had there been invited back to asheville, but the stories are amazing. and actually derailed me for a long time when i read it. and it stayed with me today as i tried to asheville today at the mayhem in mayberry, these incredible misadventures, but to look at the underbelly of crime and punishment in appalachia in this great american express. and ultimately part of a great american experience of

understand we truly are. i want to have a message first though. because every reading is sponsored and my reading tonight is not sponsored by peabody energy, it is not sponsored by clean coal. we try to do a debate today on in cr and he didn't want to face off with me anymore. my reading tonight is sponsored by the independent booksellers association because when we're doing the bailout putting all the billion dollar checks into the mail and there wondering about wall street, about the banks and wondering about this corporation, that corporation, i had this moment with my son, i said, about the independent booksellers. [laughter] >> i just kept waiting for timothy geithner, one of my heroes, and president obama, when are they going to announce we're betting out the independent booksellers of america? [cheers and applause] >> because i thought, you know, wall street, i don't have to much money in stocks. in fact, i don't have any money

in stocks and i don't have a lot of money in the real estate but i do have a lot invested in the independent booksellers because this is the landmark of communities, this is what drives our community's. i think bookstores matter. this is the arena that gives us food for thought and this is where the lobbyist. you can go online and buy our books at these outrageous discounts. drive our economy down but it's like a really bad barroom love affair, you know? [laughter] >> these discount booksellers can they love you tonight but you hate your self in the morning. [laughter] >> and you have to realize where you can buy your book but from the place in the community that is the bedrock of your community, and that's a place like ballot props. this is where the lobbyist. this is what i love to come here. this what i have driven across the mountains of appalachia to come down here from kentucky to read tonight because i love malaprops and i love these independent booksellers and at which all tonight to convince

always buying your books just like where you should buy your food and by your energy. and by our whole experience local. and that begins with our books. please, give a big hand to malaprop's bookstore. [applause] >> and i have another problem though. i am full of problems. is that i don't want to use the microphone tonight. and the c-span tv guy, i'm getting them come in their boots. i'm going to turn off all these microphones, turn off all these lights. because this what it doesn't just go into this podium. it doesn't just go into that socket. this blog is all the way back to progress energy. it goes back to the power plants and we live in asheville,ight here. we don't live in a remote area. this blog is all the way back into that energy. it comes with a trained, and and

the trains crisis and highway that i do. it went over the ridge into tennessee, all the way around into blue ridge, call the great cook at highway and goes our way into black mountain virginia. and yesterday in the same area of southwestern virginia into west virginia into eastern kentucky, they drive 3 million pounds of ammonium nitrate fuel explosives to blow up our mountain. blow up our mountain, 500 out destroyed 1.2 but acres destroyed. to reach in and in a very effective way with heavy equip and operators to pull the coal and loaded up to the train, destroy the community and the watershed. , to poison the community and the watershed. black mountain virginia where you get your call. a few years ago a young boy was sleeping in a house, the

davidson family, and the explosions went off on a night like tonight and every time when i flip my night and fly rod came down on my cousin from so they'll and a fly rod went blasting through the home and crushed a three year old and killed him. and that criminal activity is not abolished, but it is regulated today by our administration. and that criminal activity is voted on to the train and brought here to progress energy and brought here to asheville, and it runs right in to this microphone. and i am part of the problem. north carolina is the largest consumer of non-top removal coal in the nation. even though you don't have coal fuel. and we are part of the problem. and that's what i'm going to talk about tonight is how we all live in the coal fields come

especially when we begin to think about climate change. so you guys are all looking very serious. loosen up. [laughter] >> i stood with my mother and father and my uncle richard at the rent of other expanse of open earth. we had to protect our eyes, a dark swindon swept across the wind. there are huge trucks in all directions, blocks of sandstone about it like name is too stoned on a battleground. it look like an earthquake had devastated the area. how great was our buddy of eagle creek? was that the name of some novel i read? how green when we last walk these hills together. there was the corn and sorghum jetting out from slopes like ancient signpost and there was the bar where mom almost on uncle billy was when they were playing.

all the stories began to come out and we went on to the front porch that was weighed down with tables and chicken legs and gizzards and catfish and okra and garden vegetables and beans and cornbread and he things of we were by. and i can't talk about the moonshine. it was protected by centuries, just like my granddaddy to be. there's the hickory, there's the oh, there's the maple. son, listen up. there's the dogwood. there's the wild grapevine that rippled up in thickened up our ramparts of eagle creek, to the intrigue of danger. because in the backwoods, it's always dangerous. that's what everyone thought. our family homestead, it was known since 1869 as the oval hill farm. it had been founded long before then. our people had come in 1805 from north carolina. that's what i'm so attached to that. our family homestead, this wonderful blog cabin my mother grew up in, sat on a no in

eastern shadows of eagle mountain. it withdrew up to the appeals of 400 million euro vaulted riches that were older than so many americans. on a clear day as a child i will never forget i pretended to be an eagle in eagle creek and i took flights down the hill and i was running and i rode the fourth i started to take flight and i were behind the ohio river in kentucky which only lay 20 minutes away. we live in a but we lived 300 miles from chicago. we were there on the kentucky border. and i stood there with my mother and uncle richard. i can't believe this, my mother said. it's beyond description, my uncle sent. it's just wasted. now, although reggie was a tall peaceful man in his 70s that he is all still leaks. he is blind in one eye and a

soft kentucky accent, with this agent i like which we brought over from the borderland. but my mom, she was the oldest sister and she spoke quieter. she spoke with this kind of way that denied where she came from but which said competently in the passenger seat and a 16 year-old girl, and her father drove her across to county lives as a young teenager and left her at brick wonder southern illinois university with just enough time to get back to his place to the coal mine. he would put on his church blaze on top of his overalls and he was proud that his daughter got out of the fields. and we could see the route of distraction, the first explosion took place in the summer of 1998. and for years, we wondered what would happen. our families homestead lane down the grass like an overburdened hickory, but not anymore. the explosions begin to know away at the edge of our family

hill, 100 -- 1600 pounds of explosions sitting in each hole like a landmine set to ripple across the valley with enough thunder to bring down the wall of jericho. and it showed the homestead. shook the homestead with every blast. posted which we had had a generation of our families living in. we just put on a new porsche and our permits were renewed and/or modified and as the explosives came closer and suddenly is a legalized tactic to terrorize people in our holler. the frames and hands, every three days the machines moved in closer carting a rusty force you to hundred feet down. you see, we were on the wrong side of the illinois border. the illinois wilderness act that was declared in 1990, the same year the wilderness was declared. that's something about has

diversey. this bridge between the ozarks, 1100 species of flora and fauna, but we were on the wrong side. because of the people of the regulation said our holler had resources attributes. coal, quite name, greenville, davis, names that meant nothing to me, but they could change the register of the coal baron voice weekly. to see what happened in eagle creek is that kinship in american history, that americans struggle and american resiliency, american resistance in the great american pastoral was replaced by five seams of coal. and it was all gone. it was all gone. they strip mined the whole holler.

and i stood there with my uncle and my mother, and the coal company representative came up to us and he began to talk as if he knew as well. he spoke in this way kind of a nasal wispy reminded me of a character from a charles dickens novel from southern on and he was an unscripted land necktie to sell than andy came up to us and he said, i know how you feel. have you ever lost anything you loved? [laughter] >> well, loss can be forgotten that what we will do is create eagle creek. will put a really extra another layer of soil and will make a golf course you. do you like to golf? we like nature as much as you do. we will put this little goose pond's out there and make sure the coyotes can't get them. and i just looked at him. and my mother said, damn their

souls. and my uncle just walked away and said, we need to raise the dead here. they don't understand what they have just be raised. and i did know what he meant. my awful, we didn't have much relationship. because they have moved into kentucky after we've moved out west in eagle creek was kind of mythological land the we've grown up with. it for our stores are the fount of our culture had been, but also something we've wanted to forget about because it was the coal fields you did want to talk about. and so there i stood alone in front of this amplitude of death trying to understand what did they mean by the end result and what did my own coming but you have to raise the dead? what did they mean by eagle greens that they could make a golf course at one of my most diverse forests in the nation? and i look over there, and there was a young man my age, because i'm young, and it was 1997.

and this young man was golfing pictures using a four i. i didn't understand why he wasn't using a wood, you know, in the fairway. and he was surrounded by all these coal company representatives in southern elba and they're saying, you see, senator obama, here is the saudi arabia of coal. you can revamp our industry, something we're calling clean coal. and you can help us bring back. of course, the coal industry has a peak since 1980. at one time we had the stranglehold that senator obama them with clean coal we're going to bring back the coal industry. and this young man who i admire, you know, was there trying to get his four iron on the fair and i kept wondering what is he doing? and he quickly said i support clean coal. and i just looked at him and said, you're golfing. where my family has lived for 200 years. and you don't know what you want

all thing on top of. of foreign grassland. and we he made his state of the union address three nights ago, and talked again and i admire our president, he talked about clean coal. it realized during the hour-long presentation we burned 115,000 tons of coal, the 250,000 tons of carbon emissions released into the air, that hundreds of pounds of mercury scattered into our skies and to our waterways and to the minds of our children, that three americans die prematurely from heart attacks and lung disease according to the american to the american lung association to 24,000 americans every year because of coal fire plants. at a coal miner dies during the transmission of the state of the union because everyday free coal miners die from black lung disease. hundreds of thousands of coal miners have struggled with black lung, like my grandfather. and yet we talk about clean

coal. i just did and i couldn't believe it. i hate all. i try to play golf want to separate my shoulder. [laughter] >> i didn't know what to do and i just knew how i kept looking into the apathy of death and say how can i raise the dead? how can i raise the dead? this man walked up to me. he sort of look like joe here except he had black hair and a long ponytail and he was about 20 years longer, but look just like you, joe. and he came out to me and he said -- that's a part of our hillbilly lexicon. he said that means woman in shawnee. he said they took our bones to, you know. that we have been tested testing, not the shawnee but indigenous people for 10,000 years in this document that this was one of the richest prehistoric signed because of us

all well. that affect eagle creek is one of the crossroads of the great american experience for 10,000 years, that all the bones and arrowheads and whatnot that you collected us children had enough meeting. and that meaning is that those stones of fire we talk about of coal were sitting under the seat of summary. that thomas jefferson, no, don't touch thomas jefferson. thomas jefferson went to england and he was inspired by the greatest and dust revolutionary, the coal fire plants are feeling of being. he realized we had to accelerate our coal industry. but there was one problem. those stones if i were sitting under the feet of a lot of moccasins. what do you think he sent lewis and clark to look for coal reserves, to make an inventory of our natural resources? and captain lewis, before they even left in southern illinois wrote this is some of the bridges outcroppings i've ever found in 1803. there was one problem. they were under the feet of the indigenous people. i would begin the process,

thomas jefferson, no, don't talk about thomas jefferson. i love thomas jefferson. thomas jefferson begin the process with william harrison to remove the indians, get them drunk and in debt in the ohio river valley to get the salt and the coal. and it began the process. and the shawnee in eagle creek actually hit out at the contemporary times like the cherokee in north carolina. and this man who came up to talk to me, he said my family in the 1950s had to make it. not here, just there but in another hauler. and the danced around burning coal and offered my parents a pittance and they wouldn't sell. so they threaten eminent domain. and, of course, had nothing to do what private property and finally my parents to and the taliban they removed and he said the you understand for indigenous people to remove the coal from the earth is to remove the liver of the mother. and that is why we are dying. and still today, they are

removing people in arizona, with peabody coal, and in montana. as we all know in wyoming. i couldn't believe that. clash on the war in eagle creek and we've never known that even though we have been married into the. and she laughed at me agonies that it gets even worse, get ready. and so i stood there. i kept looking at this young man. he change his four iron into a second ip address of what what are you doing? and he said, clean coal. we've got to invest in clean coal. last year we gave $1.4 billion to the coal industry to subsidize carbon capture and storage. this fantasy that somehow we can capture the carbon emissions and put them back into earth. and every science course i had in high school, i never had one college but i know enough to know that not one site is can standards tell me that's a common caption and storage is

feasible in the next 10 or 15 years, that it is economically cost effective, that we know was good to happen when you put the darned stuff in, that we even have the room to put the carbon in. but i do know studying economics and production that it's going to take 30 to 40% more coal production to generate the energy to capture the carbon to try to put it in. and i do know that we spent $1.4 billion as a down payment of your tax dollars to mr. peabody and other large coal companies in the nation to do the experimental plant of clean coal. this man walked up to the next, and he was tall, lanky. by good people, and he was carrying his gun. he was such a good gun toting evangelical backwoodsman, you, my people. and he said, you know, they took the church. he said then people got sold to, you know.

you talk about our church, the baptist church. he said no, they moved your church. talk about those other people we all know about that nobody wants to talk about. that only ask, hunters, know about, that only the baptist community knows about. because did you know your ancestors were part of the baptist anti-slavery committed to the baptist dissenters of north carolina, would have on the british crown and were thrown into jail and we took across the hill to the indians. we went into these hills and we realized that slavery was clicking in to those solve coal mines. after had one of the indians they brought in legal slavery. thomas jefferson, no, don't talk about thomas jefferson. thomas jefferson was born slaves into the minds of virginia. they were dropping like flies. they had a harness around the neck and strapped around their chest and their uses human bulldozers and then they begin to work underground, and the accidents were horrific.

and the great french philosopher who came to thomas jefferson tried to tell us and said how on earth can you blacks live in these mines? they are dying like flies. i saw it. jefferson said this is the industrial revolution. we need thousands of slaves. and they begin to bring slaves into southern illinois because of our great coal reserves were next to the salt and be completely divorced of the area to burn the bubble and boil the salt, the word i'm looking for, and he destroyed all the force but they start putting and the code to boil the salt and realized they had these outcroppings and so they use a black slave labor in the land of lincoln. and obama that doug our goal. and no historical document talks about it. that black slaves that went to new orleans that begin to ship and that, of course, the french broad and 500 black slaves as early as 1702. the french discovered gold in england -- in illinois and always regretted it. that in 1818, a year before you

great mountain people would have the first abolitionist newspaper, you southerners, slavery southerners, you have the first abolitionist newspaper, more anti-slavery society than anywhere else in the country. and 1818 my great state of the emancipation from l. not passed our state constitution. it was ratified by the congress and to have one little loophole. we had no slaves in illinois of course. with the exception of our main industry. because it provides our tax revenues and we had a loophole. that they be allowed to have slaves for a while and down by the salt wells and coal mines. and we thought that. the slave owners were in eagle creek running their mind. we have thousands latest dropping like flies and we thought that. and is rugged old men with this gun, this gun culture, and i think how is it that the only

people more dissenting against big coal are people who politically don't need a. and i'm realizing coal politics has nothing to do with party politics. it's the liberal democrats who have equally beholden the right wing republicans, and how can that be? and he said, on your property were slave graves, and we all knew it. and now they have stripped wind. because we don't want to remember. we want to strip the history that strip mining is not just a process of taking the route of the trees. it's a process of ripping out the roots of a culture and historical memory. and i remember, that historical memory. one of the first times i ever thought about coal was in 1988. there i was standing waiting for the great hall of the berlin wall, and i was in prague as a young journalist and i was overlooking the hill and i said this is one of the most beautiful cities on earth and it

is black. it is completely blew by the coal fire plant has remained in a haze. and a great writer told us that is your role, young man, as a writer. the struggle between memory and oblivious. your vote as a rider to recover that memory, to recover our history, otherwise we have eliminate our history fight the soviet union to prague to the czech republic. slaves and our coal industry. clean coal, don't worry, you can send your kid down here, you can send your slaves into our much it would have a 60% mortality rate. actual advertisement. advertising for slaves, and even though they drop like flies we'll take care of them, at least for a year. this is the basis of the '30s

industry we have, and industry far dirtier than tobacco history. and that's where we have to have a reckoning with. as we play golf and glibly talk about. play golf. and so i didn't know what to think that a coal miner came up to me and i was worried because we're all worried. coal miners are worried about the jobs and, of course, i do on the what about coal miners. i love coal miners. how come there no coal miners in my town in southern? how come there are no monuments of my grandfather to a huge men, big men, as big as i. and, of course, my mom said you're just like your granddaddy, except he had muscles. [laughter] my granddad went in the mind. i was four-foot eight inches and called it the scratch back mind. think about this man, it ousted a stooped over. crooked body, and he said to expose. and one day in 1950 an and in te off anyone back to check and then the explosive went off and

the coal encased him. and bob at once went off to colorado rockies for the raptor. is a deeply religious man. and the rapture didn't come and he realized when that explosive went off he said, i realize the rapture would not come from the trumpets of graybill, up from it the explosion of a coal mine. he realized he barely barely survived. he was lucky. just three months after his accident, just north of the trail where we lost 119 coal miners, in the new orient mind about 10 miles from where senator obama as a young man in 1997 was golfing in the saudi arabia of coal, a methane explosion ripped through a mind that was full of violations and killed 111 miners. just a few months before they had written to the governor saying please, the dust buildup is so bad, what's going to happen in kentucky and what's going to happen will happen here. and the governor did nothing.

the company did nothing. 119 miners died there, including three to four people for grid and the governor asking for help. that 105 americans who died in the mines, 105,000 americans, excuse me, that over 200,000 americans who died from black lung today, still three coal miners die daily from black lung. in 2010, isn't that outrageous? and since i started to work in the coalfield in west virginia in 1983, we have lost over 60% of our employment because of heavy mechanism mason, because of mountaintop remove. coal miners they're losing their jobs, saying the housing completely abandon, the high property rates going down living in order to dance, in some of the highest levels of poverty and unemployed in the nation. it's the coal miners who have suffered. my granddaddy told me something

very important that i learned in appalachia, that the abuse of the people always goes hand in hand to the abuse of the land. that they strip minus and then they strip mine our land. that there's no such thing as an environmentalist. because human beings live in the environment. but we all are part of this experience here. this old man came up to me and he offered me a solution. and malaprop's has it on sale for 999 back to. and he said, you know what you need to make moonshine, you need two things. uniquely water and hard wood to fire up the steel. -- stove. eagle creek used to be famous for its moonshine. no, don't tell anybody that. gun toting hillbillies shooting. that's a we are told in eagle

creek. eagle creek was considered the most dangerous place in america. it's worse than the cheyenne. it's a place where you risk your lives and can't go in there. in the people who can go into eagle creek where the client. the trend tide to come in one time and they were completely routed out. they would hang up those pointy hats of the clan. the backwoodsman who took on the client. but moonshine was an indicator of the environmental cleanliness of the water and forest. not simply to drink. when i first mining surveyor came into the coal creek in the 1850s he was son of the great robert owen, created the new harmony in indiana. is one of the great geologist we had in the midwest. he came and eagle creek and said this is the largest outcropping of coal we have in the nation. this area around eagle creek is the richest coal we have in the country. it is also the richest area of

mineral springs and water sources. and this could turn in to the next berkeley springs of west virginia and virginia. very, very particular. and all the right is about eagle creek were about the streams, the fishing and the greeks and the waters and the hills. and the last report showed there had been so me just -- discharges from the mind of every stream, every creek isn't now sterile and has no aquatic life. all the streams have dried up and if you want to hike along the wilderness back from eagle mountain over to the garden of the gods, we borrowed the name and we created the garden of god in illinois. if you part of the national forest. you have to pack in your own water now. because the coal company has killed all the water. and there are no more moonshiners. and there are no more people. the abuse of the land has gone

hand-in-hand and we have lost thousands upon thousands of acres of land, but also not only fertile farmland and diverse forest, productive land that is there been put back into any economic productivity. but in appalachia, less than 3% of all land destroyed by is ever return to any kind of economic productivity. that there is no argument because it never was. all the data show that. and in eagle creek the diverse forest now is unmanaged grassland. i did know what to think, i did know what to think and i kept looking at this young man golfing. and i want to say there's a 2000 just work out a caution a tale, but it's a story, actually what i call the anatomy of the nile. i want to say, young man, if you realize in 1831 and when you about black lung, all the

scientific stakeholders the impact of black lung autobahns, but we did nothing until 1968. i said young men, do you know in agencies in we know about sulfur dioxide emissions? bag raid acid rain that all the yankees in a north forward about for their force because we finally passed the clean air act in 1990. 1861, 1990, 1831, 1968, i said there's an even greater peril now of his anatomy of the now, the denial of the death to say that coal is clean and coal is cheap is one of the greatest most egregious myths, statements i've ever heard in my life. how dare you ever glibly talk about clean coal, but coal is cheap. and now i have children like you do. mr. president. and i'm worried about their future, like you are with carbon emissions. it's an end is beautiful five of

climate. it's an invisible fact that anywhere from 35 to 40% of our coal-fired emissions are going up and affecting this and that we can stop it. i want to take him for a walk in say put down before i. it is even worse. you want to use your wood on the fairway. [laughter] and i walked within hand-in-hand because i admired him deeply, and understand he thinks and i believe so much of our politics are filled not only have 100 million-dollar pr campaign by big coal this year, but an incredibly misinformed nastasi about the coal industry. we are all proud of coal miners. i am. but part of my pride is the sense that we have to have a sense of foresight for sustainability. and so i walked with our president across southern illinois and i wanted to show him something. i said forget about carbon capture and storage. we don't even need to go there. that's just a program for jobs and we all know.

i took them over to southern illinois largest coal-fired plant being built today. but we don't call a coal-fired plant that we call it the paris energy campus. [laughter] >> is being constructed by bechtel. they said 1.1 for a in iraq and the new relic and they're looking for something else to do so they can to southern illinois, another war zone. is being built in a place called lively growth that's very famous because lively growth in 18 level as part of the great shape when the new mad earthquake and when all across the region that it was so bad and lively growth the two waterways which will feed into the coal-fired plants were actually altered. and unlike dolby no history. don't do know that the usgs says in the next 50 years is going to be another earthquake. coming, can't be part that thing somewhere else? don't they know that just down

the road there's a town called carbondale? carbondale. that there is a hill you could go have picnic on called mount carbon. and the very energy campus, of course will be clean coal. it's going to be 15% cleaner. it's only going to release 12 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year. and it will be written off to our friends from peabody with your tax dollars. the billions of dollars every year to subsidize for health care costs, the national association of scientists has said at least $82 billion a year of subsidies for the coal industry from your back pocket. to pay for health care cost, environmental costs. there are 13 there are 1300 abandoned bangs into what lowe, not to mention the thousands of abandoned mines in west virginia throughout the country that we pay for to clean up. that the black lung program that is supposed to be paid for by

the coal industry, they defaulted and we pick up the billions of dollars of cap on that, too. it just goes on and on. come with me. i want to take you somewhere come away from golf. and i took him back to appalachia. and i almost broke into my you know states of appalachia rap, but i stopped. i've done that so many times can i said you know the first came from appalachia? dean of the labor movement came out of appalachia? b-to-b rosa parks was turned to appalachia? you know you are -- social realism, literature, came out of appalachia? but i did want to talk about that. [laughter] >> i said i appalachia has always been in the forefront. the coal fields of life and the forefront and want to take you

somewhere else do. it's called coal river mountain. i said this is what excites me. this is how i'm going to end my book. come up to this last historic range in coal river mountain. i have been a sometimes it's not a. as a young man i stumbled in their in 1983 and they told me to go home to southern illinois. i did want to talk about something going on. we got up and i saw coal river mountain. were also there 10,000 years of inhabitation. and now this pickle company from richmond, virginia, had its eyes on this last rant that already do say so much of the area that the largest coal soared in the hemisphere, nearly $8 million of toxic waste sitting in a pond, of an earthen dam up in the hill and down the slope in a little valley where villages and

elementary schools, that if the earth and dam broke like what happened with bob look record marche county kentucky in your 2010 or what happened to your neighbors in the tv a pond. that about 1000 people in the value would have four minutes to flee a 72-foot tidal wave of coal sludge. and they are plastic with a few hundred feet of this honeycombed sludge to get to the last and past the mound that i said i don't want to talk about this do. i'm tired of talking about the lack coal. my book is about the tribes, the resiliency of these amazing people who worked with the and berrigan natives, work to save the land of the people, who marched and we got our first union in 1870s. my grandfather had an eight hour workday. and he earned it because of the union. and then he broke with the union and he had his own progressive union. it was called the progressive minus. that's a long story.

i said i want to take you to coal river mountain were coal miners and coal mining commuters and outside people have come together and they realize coal river about is unique with the wind and they can get the current that almost level five or level six and it can generate almost $1.8 of tax revenues every year, enough energy for 100,000 homes, more jobs over a 20. that in the 6000 acres stripmining that would devastate the community. and it will be sustainable for life. that they call on coal river mountain is only going to last 14 more years. we can count the scenes. i said, this is the future. look, mr. president, that is the saudi arabia of wind. that we are the saudi arabia soldier. and you must not talking about the saudi arabia of coal because the only place we want to keep carbon is in the ground. . .