Who has Coal Fever? The Invisible Violence of Coal Supply Chain from Extraction to Export
A talk that outlines the historical and political economic background of current social movement efforts in South Baltimore, which aim to achieve a Just Transition away from coal.
Welcome to a talk by Nicole Fabricant of Towson University in Maryland
Despite the ongoing organizing efforts and the scientific evidence, Baltimore is far from a just transition away from coal. How can communities along an entire supply chain hold corporations like CSX accountable for the harms they have caused from the mines to the afterlives of extraction in overburdened communities? Fabricant will link her talk to the current state of environmental policy in the US under the Trump administration.
The talk is held in connection with the Empowered Futures Research School and the RAPID research cluster at the Faculty of Landscape and Society at NMBU.
Abstract
This talk sketches the historic and political economic context for contemporary social movement organizing in South Baltimore for a Just Transition away from coal. The talk highlights how and why Baltimore became a major exporter of coal (2nd largest coal export pier on E. coast) in the late 1970s. The talk quickly pivots to the invisible forms of violence tied to this globalized commodity chain that links Appalachian miners to poor white and Black communities in Baltimore, Maryland. Finally, the paper reflects upon how we are organizing across an entire supply chain: from point of extraction to export. How can communities along an entire supply chain hold corporations like CSX accountable for the harms they have caused from the mines to the afterlives of extraction in overburdened communities?
Bio
Nicole Fabricant is Professor of Anthropology at Towson University in Maryland. She teaches courses on resource wars, environmental justice, and the climate crisis. Her most recent book, Fighting to Breathe Race, Toxicity and the Rise of Youth Activism in Baltimore (University of California Press 2022) looks at the cumulative impacts of industrial stationary toxic facilities in South Baltimore. It follows a dynamic and creative group of high school students who decided to fight back against the race- and class-based health disparities and inequality of industrial expansion. As a Baltimore resident and activist-scholar, Fabricant documents how these young organizers came to envision, design, and create a more just and sustainable future.
Fighting to Breathe received the 2024 APLA book prize for best critical ethnography in political anthropology.
Her new research examines the political economy of coal (from extraction to export). She also documents political campaigns of solidarity and resistance across the entire supply chain from Appalachia to Baltimore as movement activists organize for a Just Transition from coal. She is currently working on a manuscript on the need for the re-nationalization and electrification of rail.