Appalachian Exploitation

Geography

Appalachia #1

9/29/11

Appalachian Exploitation

The Appalachian region is considered one of the poorest areas in the United States. A major problem for many towns in that region is that their economy is not sustainable. Basically, what this means is that the economy that they have now will not be available in a few generations. This is because much of the land is owned by big businesses that come into the regions to extract the area’s resources. The towns themselves barely use their own resources. It would certainly be in the regions best interest to start implementing sustainable practices. However, the towns’ lack of funds and resource exploitation hinder the development of sustainable economies to the point where Appalachia could never develop an economy that it can maintain.

Primarily, we should discuss what sustainable development is and why it is necessary. According to The Brundtland Commision Report of 1992, sustainable development is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Graham, 2000). This means that practices must be both “ecologically sensitive and economically sound” (Glasmeier 132). These include wind farms, solar panels, crop rotations and just about anything else that can conserve resources and maintain flowing economies. This is important for any society to have. Otherwise, any town could be doomed in the future when resources run out. The bottom line in Appalachia is that they simply do not have the money necessary to fund sustainable development.

One major dilemma regarding the implementation of sustainable development is the question of who is responsible for the project’s funding. Technically, it falls onto the public sector to fund these things. The problem is that many of the Appalachian towns are very poor and cannot afford many of these developments. Also, it is hard for them to get state funding...