On West Virginia coal and Afghan poppies

Quite often when we refer to our reliance on coal and other fossil fuels, we use the term "addiction" to describe this unhealthy relationship. But this is not just a "catchword" adopted out of frustration; the similarities between drug addiction and coal use, and the unintended consequences arising from both, are strikingly clear. As is our inability and reluctance to formulate effective solutions for these problems.

West Virginia is one of the biggest coal producing states in our country, and it's also one of the poorest. Between the actual mining jobs and other occupations that rely on the proceeds of such, some 85,000 West Virginians are connected to the industry. In their minds anyway, coal mining is critical to their survival. That they are slaves to an industry that has actually reduced the number of mining jobs while ruining the environment of their beautiful state via mechanized mountaintop removal is something they refuse to contemplate.

Jumping to the other side of the planet, here's an excerpt from Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

The problem of narcotics has been brought upon our country by the past three decades of war, destruction, and human suffering. We know from international experience that global demand for narcotics finds supply in environments where state institutions are weak, where general instability is high, where poverty is rife, and where people are extremely vulnerable to illicit sources of livelihood for mere survival. Unfortunately, my country remains in such dire situation today, in spite of our significant achievements over the past seven years.

Poverty is the great equalizer, bringing all humans who experience it down to the level of mere survival. Rational thought about making improvements to your long-term financial situation, ensuring your family's resiliency to future difficulties, and taking an active role in the betterment of your society, are all concepts that are foreign to those who struggle with poverty. And trying to convince them otherwise is an exercise in futility. That's not an indictment of their character, it's an understanding of their basic humanity, and an acknowledgment that we would probably behave the same were we in their shoes.

The coal miner, just like the poppy farmer, is faced with an extremely short list of choices. And those choices have been indirectly crafted by very powerful outside influences. And the only way to broaden their choices is for equally powerful entities to act as a counterweight, and sacrifice resources in the process:

In the Afghan context, we strongly believe that the best weapon against narcotics is gradual but steady prevention in the form of improved governance and rule of law, sustainable alternative development assistance, and increased security.

We think very highly of DEA officers, and appreciate their hard efforts to reform, equip, and build our Counter-Narcotics police and embed with them to mount effective interdiction operations against drug traffickers as the main drivers of opium cultivation and drug production in Afghanistan. We equally appreciate the expansion of the Good Performance Initiative (GPI) with increased US assistance to reward poppy-free provinces and to add more provinces to their number.
To consolidate our shared achievements and to continue our jihad against narcotics province by province until the whole of Afghanistan is drug-free, we will need sustainable resources from our partners.

It is my opinion that the accumulation of toxins released by coal mining and combustion, as well as the increasing atmospheric carbon levels that are changing our world in dynamic and frightening ways, have achieved the level of a "clear and present danger" to the continued survival of both mankind and the natural world in which we live. And I believe that threat far surpasses this one:

Eliminating drugs is a task that Afghanistan cannot do alone, but together with our allies and those who join us in the belief that narcotics is a common enemy of the international community—one that takes millions of young lives across the world every year, one that causes HIV/AIDS, one that finances urban violence and crime, and one that increasingly fuels global terrorism and funds the Taliban’s brutal terrorist activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Our addiction to coal demands an intervention, and that intervention will come with costs that we must be willing to pay. We need to fund research and development to help those who rely on coal for their survival to transition away, and show them that they don't have to rely on the coal industry to look out for them.