Quddus Snyder: Wake Up Eaton

Ever feel like you’re speaking Chinese at a gathering of deaf and mute people? Eaton, wǒmen bìxū qiángyìng qǐlái. That’s Mandarin for “Eaton, we need to get tough” (as he pounds his right fist into his left hand).

I’ve spent months in the hills and hollows of Kentucky, scaling steep sandstone cliffs and goofing off. There, I saw firsthand what extractive industries are all about — remove a resource and leave a mess. Its oil country and the consequences of unregulated greed are heartbreaking: abandoned tanks and pumps, busted networks of pipes all along creek beds, and heaps of junk.