No Good Alternative

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In the second volume of William T. Vollmann's exploration of global warming, he begins in the coal fields of West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, where coal is seen as both a fuel and a heritage. Over four years, Vollmann documents the devastation in hollowed-out towns with polluted streams and unsafe drinking water, covertly visits mountaintop removal mines, and highlights unpaid fines for health and safety violations, alongside the tragic stories of miners who lost their lives due to corporate negligence. His investigation into natural gas takes him to Greeley, Colorado, where he interviews anti-fracking activists, a city planner, and a homeowner suffering health issues related to fracking. When addressing oil production, he converses with industry leaders, including a former CEO of Conoco and a vice president of the Bank of Oklahoma, while also conducting discreet interviews with guest workers in the United Arab Emirates involved in oil-related labor. This volume, like its predecessor, aims to understand and listen rather than assign blame, except in clear cases of corporate and political wrongdoing. Vollmann, acknowledging his own role as a carbon burner, quantifies his power use and seeks to explain to future generations why society ignored scientific consensus, continuously increasing electric power demand while dismissing viable alternatives.