How Coal's Decline Destroyed This Region
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- Coal has been the lifeblood of Appalachia for generations. We traveled to Kentucky to find out how the decline of coal has affected their lives and their communities, which were literally built for the industry.
Watch part 1 of this series here: • How Appalachia Deterio...
Watch part 3 of this series here: • The People Who Are Bri...
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When my dad died from the coal as a miner, mom made sure to get us kids out of there. Had she not, I would have gone down the mine. I feel for you all. I'm 80 now and look back on the young life of my dad and his brothers. Dad and uncles paid for coal with their lives. My dad was only 42 when he died. I was 5, never really knew him. I do have a nightmarish memory of him face down in a pool of blood when his lungs burst from black lung.
My God ....
Please make more of these mini-documentaries AJ+!
We've got so much in store for you!
Yes these vids are very interesting.
Can you do something on the science of GMOs?
This is probably the best mini series you AJ+ has done.
I've got a friend who works for a company that repairs and services heavy equipment. He used to work in the mines, 13 years ago he went and learned to fix the machines that replaced the miners.
The welding couple doesn't have $3500 but that dodge he's driving must be worth over 30k.
That's why we need to work towards newer, cleaner energy forms. Coal and fossil fuels will run out, it's not stable for emoployment
With The Added Bonus that the Research of Newer Technologies will Increase Employment
xxtoronto xo I bet you the next part is gonna be about clean energy moving in and replacing coal
Bailey Shaffer that's the way of the future. We should evolve with the times.
EXACLY toronto! I agree with that, like I said in the previous vid, coal was doomed from the beginning.
Additionally, these energy companies and the local governments need to work with those that are going to be laid off to help them find new employment so people don't end up poor and homeless.
Great documentary. Shows what many good, hard working and productive people have to go thru.
Thank you for this story. We need to understand the lives of the people who voted for Trump and the systemic issues that has resulted in such an enormous political divide. Quite honestly, I think there are plenty of people who voted against Trump who can identify with this story because it speaks to their lives as well. Thanks again.
It's hard for coal mining communities to just change their way of life overnight, when their only source of income has been the same product for well over a hundred years, and it paid well too. Sadly, not only did the government fail to provide alternative options for for the Appalachia's with investing in new job opportunities in the area, it failed them in healthcare as well. Pneumoconiosis/Black lung is absolutely brutal, and I've lost count of the people I know who've died from it, but in the USA, it would seem that even basic healthcare is under threat, and sufferers from this condition may well lose the right to things like cheap inhalers if Trump repeals the *Affordable Care Act* & I believe he will, but with nothing sensible to replace it.
These are pretty tough people though, intelligent and hard working, and they deserve better than *Kentucky State Governor Matt Bevin* cutting funding for committees for ethics investigations and elections, because now it looks like he'll have free reign to to use these peoples taxes however he likes, and never be called on it.
Even as a green energy supporter, I still feel bad for these people. I understand why they took the coal jobs, and power to them. In my opinion however, it is up to the state(federal or state gvt)to have theses people re-educated in order to get new, good paying jobs.
Jobs will be created for the renewable power industry and a lot more than what exists in the fossil fuel.industry now which creates opportunities for these people.
When horses were replaced by trains and cars the existing horse transportation system was decimated and people had to switch jobs. Same will happen with .automation and all technogical.shiftd.
the decline of coal didn't destroy appalachia. that was the coal companies. they started off bad and continued to be bad. mountain folk would have been a lot better off coal had never been found there
Basically you're saying if nobody ever moved here and it was still uninhabited then it'd be better because then there would be no people to need jobs. The only thing that brought people here was coal.
How can they be poor if they use to make 70,000 per year? What happened to that money from previous years of employment
Well you take into mind that most of our people have lived in poverty. So when we get a job making 70k a year a lot of people go out and get new vehicles, have a bunch of kids, buy new homes. We basically buy a bunch of shit we don't need.
Black Lung, cost of living, the lack of taxes collected will make the government poor.
lung cancer treatments probably
With coal, some years you work, some years you get laid off. There are people who spend money stupidly but it's not steady work, at least not since the 1990s.
This is finally some great reporting from AJ+. Thank you...people need to understand why Trump won in these regions.
That was really well put together
just like Florida and tourism and there with the ecosystem and the beaches I feel these people need to innovate and make something new San Francisco is booming because of tech innovation is key 30 years from know I don't think San Fran will be the way it is today Kentucky needs to innovate with education on healthcare or something not just technical schools to train ppl how to mine for coal
Maybe put a couple of wind turbines on top of those hills instead of chopping them off to dig out coal seams?
@Natasha Minor We have wind turbines close to a bird sanctuary, the birds were tracked and they flew around the area with the turbines. I have never heard of any problem with cold weather for wind power (it drops to -20 C here) except that if ice forms on the blades they can throw ice pretty far. For about 10 years I bought exclusively wind generated electricity to support the build up but now it's a mature technology and anyway I switched electricity provider to a company that only has hydro power.
So thaaaat's why they hate the previous boss-man.
My family is from Manchester KY. All the things in this film are true. As to the coughing. Many people there are also smoke like a train, 1-2 packs a day. I read in the Washington Post that Clay Co. KY was the most overweight county in the country. Prescription drugs..."pills" as my cousin says, are a huge problem. Many of my relatives that live there seem to be in denial and defensive about the issues. If I bring it up, I guess they think I am making fun of them.
Well i'm glad they stopped so much the coal mining at that place.
I want to work at AJ+
28 dollars a hour ? holy thats not much
So the young couple didn't have $3,,600 to move out, but had enough money to get tattoos?
The UMWA helped kill coal.
I feel ya brother
I don't mean to sound callous but why don't these people upgrade their skills and enter new industries? Renewable energy technologies are safer, cleaner, and will last much longer. The economy is shifting away from those old technologies.Those jobs honestly aren't coming back and people shouldn't want them back. Even my home has solar panels.
not enough money since they are in poverty. Starting up a new business as well as training costs money. So unless some altruistic bigshot comes in then nothings going to happen.
Safura Salam when you cannot afford to eat or house your family you cannot afford to "upgrade" your skills.
the thing is, the new sectors are not going to be in appalachia. children will move away, and the population will slowly go down.
So leave their home and land for the city? That's the only option and it's what people have been doing for 50 years now. There's almost nobody left. There are no jobs here. The only option is to pick up and move and for some people that's an impossible task. You can't sell your home because nobody is buying. If you don't have a job, how can you rent an apartment in the city? And solar panels production is mostly done outside of the USA because of the chemicals used in photovoltaics. Much worse than anything to do with coal and most of the stuff Dow makes in WV.
Big difference, Donald Trump is a businessman not a politician.
And he's bad at both
I bet u hillbillies feel really stupid right now. No mine jobs, more mine accidents and more despair.
Al Jazeera may be suspect to some. But in this case they have it correct. Hard to say that, maybe it is because they were not bought off by big business for this story. I grew up in West Virginia. First good job was building the railroad for the new Island Creek Coal Tenmile project. Got a job there and worked until 1985 when it shut down. Worked in the coal mines for the most part until 1998 when I finally moved away to what real prosperity can be. I look back at all the promises, damage, outright theft, and legacy water issues coal mining has left in Appalachia. It is MY fault as a citizen for putting up with it. It was always about a quick profit for coal barons. Get in a legal bind, close up and start up under another name. Money could have been spent to make coal cleaner, to make a lasting economy for areas where the coal was mined. How many times were communities promised industrial parks on reclaimed coal sites....and never got anything. These areas were never Democracies, but Dictatorships bought and paid for by Coal Barons. Long live the United Mine Workers, for no others ever stood up to help the miners and their families. Ignorance is bliss....an old saying. But Ignorance WAS bliss fit the mining community better. Sighhhhhh.....The truth is that clean renewable energy is a must. Some will have to suffer to get there.......
I struggle to understand if they really want their jobs back. That black lung disease does not look like fun.
You base your video on a union supporter. Those people alone were a blight on coal after the states started regulating the mines. Yes the union had is place is time but it got greedy and destroyed more jobs. I was fortunate to work for a private coal company when I was young it was the greatest experience of my life. Since the down turn of coal I have had to move to “more economic areas” i won’t make the same money I did in coal till I’m 40 at best even though my time in coal trained to a higher level then is expected from my current industry
I saw some coal once. Didn't care for it
I live in Whitesburg, and I can tell you hands down that this film does not represent the area accurately at all. A business surviving for a year (Heritage Kitchen) is not a sign of success. I wonder why they didn't discuss the several dozen businesses that have came and went in the last handful of years? If I were to walk down Main Street of Whitesburg, I could name at least 8 businesses that have closed their doors in the last 5 years, and that isn't even counting the outlying areas. Why? Because this region has zero infrastructure without the coal business. On main street, there are only a handful of actual businesses that have made it for more than a couple of years, and those few businesses only employ about 5 people each. And these people are going to sit and talk about how this is a great area for entrepreneurs? Give me a break. If that was the case, our largest and most successful business wouldn't be the local Wal-Mart that isn't even open 24/7. The biggest portion of the viable workforce in this area can't even pass a drug test.
Really, this production is just as bad as any before it. When we were thriving because of coal, we were portrayed as being poor, ignorant, and far from industrialized. Now that coal is gone and we are doing worse than we ever have, we are being portrayed as a blossoming little town full of entrepreneurial potential.
If you cannot represent this area accurately, then seriously, just do us all a favor and quit making films about it.
I live here in Whitesburg too, buddy and I disagree wholeheartedly and it's a shame that you'd talk about how the "biggest portion of the viable workforce in this area can't even pass a drug test." Do you have any proof to back up that statement or are you just furthering a stereotype? Heritage Kitchen, Summit City, Streetside, Icing On The Cake, Roundabout Music, Western Auto, Bluegrass Solar have all been successful and employ people from here and are all on Main Street. Why would you put down your own people trying to diversify the economy?
I don't know, go to Wal-Mart on the 1st or 3rd of the month? Pick up a news paper? Go to the unemployment office? Stereotypes have a place in this world. Hell, even go ask employers in the area and that's their biggest complaint; that potential employees are limited by the drug testing requirement. If you aren't aware of this, you are living in some type of ignorance bubble. I mean, it is now 'routine' for police to look up your nose in this area if you are stopped for a traffic violation. I, personally, know more people who are on drugs than people who are not (as is the case for most people). Open up your damn eyes.
Most of the businesses you have listed (with the exception of the bars and the tire store) have only been in business for 3 years or less. That does not constitute a 'successful' business. There have literally been dozens of businesses pop up and fizzle out nearly as quickly over the last decade or so.
I have no problem with people trying to diversify the economy. But to suggest that an area that primarily offers minimum wage jobs is an entrepreneurial paradise... That I do have a problem with. Why? Because it's so damn far from the truth, and glorifying this area will not help bring attention to the true struggles here. Drugs have overrun the region. The most popular career is Government Assistance Recipient. The population is shrinking at an alarming rate. The county just laid off or furloughed several dozen employees because revenue is non-existent here. Sorry to break it to you, sweetheart, but fact trumps fiction.
You could not prove that the biggest portion of the viable workforce can't pass a drug test, that cops look up your nose for traffic violations, or that the majority of Whitesburg citizens are on Government Assistance because none of that is actually true. Stereotypes like those of Eastern Kentuckians are harmful and I'm not you're sweetheart. I'll continue supporting my neighbors instead of tearing them down.
@@heidihawthorne turtlemaster is right. Most people can't pass a drug test. Even when coal companies hire, they have a hard time finding people who can piss clean. My job takes me all over east kentucky and the whole state of WV. I've been to almost every coal town here. Taxes are high because people who actually work have to fund all the people on the government's dime.
so nice yar....
Qatar hates coal. AJ plus is a bad joke
Love the girl's T shirt...."Health care is a human right". This in Trump country. Ironic or what?
suuu
LIKE
Just started in a coal mine here in WV as a RED hat... coal isn’t going anywhere! #TRUMP
This aged poorly LMAO Trump didn't do shit for coal
Here we are a year later with 5 percent increase in coal hauling on railroads every quarter and seaborne markets are strong!boom go TRUMP!
This aged poorly LMAO Trump didn't do shit for coal
Jesus Christ is the only way, and only Jesus can save you.