Q: How many jobs are associated with mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia? How has that number changed in recent decades relative to how much coal is produced in the region?
As discussed in the post on Bank of America, restricting a query to Central Appalachian strip mining production provides an excellent approximation of mountaintop removal coal production (the same is true for employment).
A column chart (rather than a pie chart, table, etc.) should be selected as the view option. This is true of any query that seeks to view change across time. Additionally, the query should be sorted by a time unit, in this case, by year.
Here is a sample graphic of Central Appalachian strip mine employment generated using the Open Source Coal database and graphing tools:
Click image to view an interactive chart, or click here to see how the query was performed using the Coal Production Datafinder on Open Source Coal.
And here is a graphic of Central Appalachian strip mine production:
Click image to view an interactive chart, or click here to see how the query was performed using the Coal Production Datafinder on Open Source Coal.
Also, the answers to these two questions can be illustrated by a single graphic, one that charts both employment and production data across time. Here is a sample graphic of both employment and production in Central Appalachian strip mines generated using the Open Source Coal database and graphing tools:
Click image to view an interactive chart, or click here to see how the query was performed using the Coal Production Datafinder on Open Source Coal.
