What if the mountains aren't there?

We had the first cool days in Charleston this past weekend. It was ahead of schedule, but it got many people thinking about knee-length boots, football, and large bowls of spicy chili.

For me, I started thinking about leaves changing in the mountains, how that must be already happening, and how many people make their annual pilgrimages to high elevations too ooh and ahh. But what if the mountains were not there? I don't mean paved over by outlet malls; I mean not there.

For many in some of the deepest hollers and hideaways in the Appalachian mountains, this is a reality, and it's called mountaintop removal. It is a modern technique for mining coal, and the coal companies in places such as West Virginia say it's safer and good for the economy.

For those of us, and that's most of us, that don't live in that world, it is a controversy that too many of us find too painful or too complicated, so we turn away. Carl Galie is asking us -- through his art -- to turn back, to look again.

I had the chance to talk with him about his commitment to wild places and rural communities, and about his approach to photography. See some of his photos of coal country's vanishing places here and read about what sets apart his calls for change.