In 2015, a flood of thick yellow sludge from a long-abandoned mine in Silverton, Colorado, made headlines as it flowed down the Animas River towards the Navajo Nation and the mighty Colorado River. Perhaps the most charismatic environmental disaster of our time, the Gold King Mine spill illustrates the devastating potential waiting in hundreds of abandoned mines throughout the Rocky Mountains. With disarming storytelling, award-winning journalist...

"The second volume of William T. Vollmann's epic book about the factors and human actions that have led to global warming begins in the coal fields of West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, where "America's best friend" is not merely a fuel, but a "heritage." Over the course of four years Vollmann finds hollowed out towns with coal-polluted streams and acidified drinking water; makes covert visits to mountaintop removal mines; and offers documented accounts...