By John Kitterman

In his 2006 book, “Lost Mountain,” Kentucky writer Erik Reece describes a man fighting environmental destruction in his community by placing the following sign in his yard: “God was wrong. Support mountaintop removal.”

This clever, homegrown reversal of the assumption that God is some kind of celestial businessman on the side of coal companies also demonstrates that not everything can be reduced to “the economy, stupid.” Or at least it’s narrow-minded to think in bumper-sticker terms, as if the economy were somehow separate from the rest of human existence.

I don’t think it’s that hard to demonstrate that sustainability is good economics. It’s certainly better than relying on one business in Appalachia where the poverty rate remains unchanged in the last 40 years while 500 mountains have been destroyed for coal.

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Kitterman lives in Ferrum.