The rest of Lost Mountain

In the second half of the book Reece uses many of the same visuals and sappy stories about nature that he did in the first half of his book to make his point. He continues to bombard the reader with descriptions of blackberry bushes that have disappeared and rants about the gaping hole that now stands in the once lush landscape. Its not that the points are not solid but after 150 pages of the same thing your beating a dead horse.
The part of the second half of the book that I found the most interesting was the recount of the Robert Kennedy visit. I think what Reece is trying to do in that chapter is show how things were bad back then and how little to nothing has changed. The description of the participation and community involvement in the reenactment give the sense that the issues are still very close to hearts of the individuals being afflicted. When Robert Kennedy says "that there is absolutely no reason why in a country with such affluence that people should live in such poverty" (paraphrase) he is absolutely right. It is this point that Reece is trying to drive home the hole book. It is the responsibility of the people at large to take care not only of our environment but of each other.
All in all, Reece wants his reader to walk away from his book knowing that Mountian top removal and strip mining are not some ancient technologies from a distant past but real issues that we need to deal with today. He brings attention to the destruction of homes, water contamination, devastation of forests, and perpetuation of poverty and disease that the coal industry has brought to Appalachia. His warhearted descriptions and factual evidence support his argument that something needs to drastically change in order to ensure a better future for all of us.
Make sure to do your part!