Susan Rauh, Mitch Barley, Paul Kolbe, Anthony Cable

1. Reece talks about how the coal companies don't understand the value of destruction itself, the only value they see is coal. They don't see the value in the destruction of the whole environment. When you destroy something, when you value it your will show some type of remorse, in this case coal companies show no remorse and make no effort to preserve the current way of life. If you destroy the plants with the cancer curing agent, then you are destroying life itself. Diversity in human life is very important and by destroying diversity it is detrimental to the human race because diversity is such a positive thing. Diversity brings a unique quality to life that you wouldn't otherwise have; to destroy it denies humanity that quality.
2. Reece does a good job with these few chapters because bringing in other specific issues and events persuades the reader in a more effective manor. He goes beyond telling what he sees and gives real life examples that tend to enhance the ethical appeal. In the chapter titled "Acts of God," Reece exposes the reader to real life events and hardships directly tied to strip mining. It gives you a deeper, more meaningful understanding of the issues correlated to strip mining. Weaving back and forth between the specific chapters and his journal you get the full spectrum of knowledge.
3. Reece assumes that by making people aware of these issues that awareness can act like a catalyst for change. As a group, we have become more aware of our everyday energy consumption. The more energy we use, the more others suffer. It also gets us talking about something that we would otherwise never talk about. Being aware of the truth of striping mining makes us want to somehow contribute to positive change.
4. Reece uses ethos, logos and pathos along with statistics. His use of statistics given an objective credibility, he provides irrefutable statistics. Pathos-Reece provides the very emotional and personal stories dealing with individuals and how coal mining has effected their lives. When you think about getting electricity, you turning on a light switch has a negative impact on someone else's life. The issue as a whole is an ethical and moral issue at heart and Reece takes advantage of almost all opportunities to capitalize on appealing to readers emotion.
5. We as the people demand cheap energy and coal provides that, therefore Reece probably wants the reader to take a step back and look at the way we live our lives. Reece would probably think despite the fact we now know what tragic effects strip mining has, we still demand cheap energy. By writing this book, even if only one person changes their way of living down the road, Reece would view that as a success. Maybe this would even create a domino effect.