A wall of coal.

• Author: Johansen, Bruce E.
• Position: Letter to the editor

Excellent piece by Terry Tempest Williams on the sacrifice of Appalachia's land and people to mountaintop coal mining ("On the Trail of Big Coal," June issue).

Here's another reason to oppose coal mining of any kind: If we do not get off coal, we have no chance of controlling global warming.

If we do not get off coal (source of half the United States' electric power), the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (now nearing 390 parts per million) will not decline, much less reach the 350 ppm that many scientists and a worldwide movement (350.org) agree is safe.

As...