For better or worse, the bulk of coal industry jobs are in Appalachia - and when that coal is gone, so are the jobs.

It may be too late for West Virginia to save itself from the ravages of Big Coal. But it's not too late for America.

Americans don't pay much attention to environmental issues, because they aren't sexy. I mean, cleaning up coal plants and reining in outlaw frackers is hugely important work, but it doesn't get anybody's pulse racing.

When it comes to global warming, coal is the gorilla in the room.

Bloomberg is famously impatient with beltway politics and believes that to get anything done you need to work from the ground up.

For better or worse, the bulk of coal industry jobs are in Appalachia - and when that coal is gone, so are the jobs.

Climate scientists have long pointed to the Southwest as one of the places in the U.S. that is most vulnerable to global warming impacts, especially drought. And if there's one thing that even climate denialists don't dispute, dry things burn.