I grew up in coal mine country, so I am no stranger to destroyed areas.

Here's a google map link that shows a satellite view of an area just south of my home town in western PA.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=15926&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=59.379225,135.263672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Central+City,+Somerset,+Pennsylvania+15926&ll=40.082537,-78.802185&spn=0.028468,0.082397&t=h&z=15

Although coal mining is a big see more part of the local economy, it is sad to see the barren land that several decades ago, was dense forest land. Notice how,even the land that hasn't been strip mined, has all the trees covered with black coal dust. Fresh mountain streams that you could once drink from, are now contaminated with waste water runoff from the coal mines. The streams, once filled with native fish, are now devoid of life. Even algae won't grow in the streams. The streams have been sterilized by all the sulphur. The coal mine shown in the map produces millions of dollars of coal each day, yet they do very little to restore the land to it's previous state. All they are require to do is 'plant trees' The trouble is, their is no top soil left to support anything but pine trees. They do plant thousands of pine trees, but void of nutrients, the trees grow very, very slowly. It will take hundreds, if not thousands of years for the land to heal itself.

Coal mining is one of the most destructive things to the environment I know of, and that's before you start burning the stuff.