Your story reminds me of my neighbor's childhood. He was raised in a coal miners camp and his father owned a small coal mine. They really struggled to make ends meet. He said his father would take him to the coal mine from time to time when he was 7 or 8 years old to help him. It was dirty work and they barely made enough money to get by. He said that there was a coal company in the area with a store and a lot of people would take their paycheck and give it right back to the company to buy necessities. Or they were in debt to the company.
As you mentioned, coal mining is an environmental disaster if the company doesn't do the right thing. I'm sorry to hear that your family were victims to this type of treatment. The companies get away with it because they are never held accountable. And, most people are too poor to challenge them in court.
This reminds me of the current day scourge on our environment- datacenters. They are also environmental nightmares. You mentioned the drinking water, that's why datacenters popped in my head. The datacenters use huge amounts of water to cool down their network servers. That water is water most nearby neighborhoods depend on for drinking water. They also use up tons of the city's electricity. They create noise pollution and they actually raise the temperature in the area by about 14 degrees. Environmental disaster indeed.
As for you feeling judged because you lived in a trailer, I bet you did experience some things that made you feel that way. Maybe you can't remember exactly what, but our society is notorious at looking down on people who have less. I remember feeling judged for being poor when I was younger. But as you said, maybe it's because we compared our situation with others who had more than we did.
Thanks for sharing this story Norm. Unfortunately this type of thing is still going on. It's good to share your perspective with others who aren't aware.
Thanks for your comment, Sarah. You make a great point about datacenters. People never think about the energy they use. And, where I live, water is already a big issue. We get some of our water from the Colorado River and it is already over allocated. It used to flow into the Gulf of California but now it dries up before it ever gets there. The datacenters are going to make it much worse. I predict that water will be the major issue in this area for the rest of this century and there are no easy solutions.
Poor folks are first in line to get screwed over and they’re the last to get any relief from their government. Those that have say, “Pull yourself up by your boot straps.” But, what if you don’t have any boots? The well-off people never consider that. Makes me crazy.
Hi Norm,
Your story reminds me of my neighbor's childhood. He was raised in a coal miners camp and his father owned a small coal mine. They really struggled to make ends meet. He said his father would take him to the coal mine from time to time when he was 7 or 8 years old to help him. It was dirty work and they barely made enough money to get by. He said that there was a coal company in the area with a store and a lot of people would take their paycheck and give it right back to the company to buy necessities. Or they were in debt to the company.
As you mentioned, coal mining is an environmental disaster if the company doesn't do the right thing. I'm sorry to hear that your family were victims to this type of treatment. The companies get away with it because they are never held accountable. And, most people are too poor to challenge them in court.
This reminds me of the current day scourge on our environment- datacenters. They are also environmental nightmares. You mentioned the drinking water, that's why datacenters popped in my head. The datacenters use huge amounts of water to cool down their network servers. That water is water most nearby neighborhoods depend on for drinking water. They also use up tons of the city's electricity. They create noise pollution and they actually raise the temperature in the area by about 14 degrees. Environmental disaster indeed.
As for you feeling judged because you lived in a trailer, I bet you did experience some things that made you feel that way. Maybe you can't remember exactly what, but our society is notorious at looking down on people who have less. I remember feeling judged for being poor when I was younger. But as you said, maybe it's because we compared our situation with others who had more than we did.
Thanks for sharing this story Norm. Unfortunately this type of thing is still going on. It's good to share your perspective with others who aren't aware.
Have a good weekend.
Thanks for your comment, Sarah. You make a great point about datacenters. People never think about the energy they use. And, where I live, water is already a big issue. We get some of our water from the Colorado River and it is already over allocated. It used to flow into the Gulf of California but now it dries up before it ever gets there. The datacenters are going to make it much worse. I predict that water will be the major issue in this area for the rest of this century and there are no easy solutions.
Poor folks are first in line to get screwed over and they’re the last to get any relief from their government. Those that have say, “Pull yourself up by your boot straps.” But, what if you don’t have any boots? The well-off people never consider that. Makes me crazy.
Hope your weekend is going well. ✌️