Coal and environmental inequality

The burning of coal is one of the largest historical and contemporary contributors to human-induced climate change - and a leading cause of health problems across the world. In this article, we illustrate how each stage of the coal production process in the coal-mining region of Appalachia is imbued with environmental inequalities. While much of the existing literature on coal and environmental inequality focuses on the climate effects of coal burning, we examine how coal extraction, processing, transportation, scrubbing, and burning all have unequal impacts on disadvantaged and vulnerable populations. We contextualize this analysis within the broader environmental sociological literature on metabolic and corporeal rifts and shifts which illustrates how technological and policy changes related to coal did not resolve inequalities but shifted them to disadvantaged and vulnerable populations. We conclude the chapter by discussing the implications of these trends for just transition policy and planning.