I disagree with the effect of J. Henry Fair's images. In making "beautiful" images of coal ash and surface mining, Fair may be indulging the creative process and producing art work, but it risks glorifying the destruction that is taking place and diminishing its environmental impacts. For example, when I look at several of these images, to me I see a strong resemblance to aerial images of glacial outwash and braided rivers in the arctic. To me, the beauty of those places is grounded in the relative pristine condition of their ecosystems. The similarity of these images to the appearance of those places, however, creates an association in my mind of that purity with coal ash and coal pollution, creating a contradiction of meaning behind the images.
I am also reminded of a comment I heard at Kayford Mountain one time when I was visiting the site with a family. One member of the group was an impressionable teenage girl, who seemed more impressed with the power of explosives and ability of men to move earth, than the resulting environmental destruction. In response to Larry Gibson's explanation of the surrounding moonscape, she uttered in a matter-of-fact kind of way, "That's awesome." This, I fear, is the unintended consequence of our messaging. Now, teenagers are not the most expressive demographic, but this illustrates how skewed our world view has become when we fail to recognize ecocide when we are confronted with it. Images like these can reinforce that world view.
I am not questioning the power of the images, but they might as well have been taken by the coal industry - I fail to see Fair's and in this case, NRDC's objective in publicizing them for environmental advocacy.

I firmly believe that this type of views and more importantly the awareness that should be instilled in even small children of the damage that is really being showed are an important way of driving home a point.
I remember as a child in my father's homeland of Jamaica I was exposed to the horrors of what a government can do when they allow a company like Reynold's Aluminum to wreak havoc on the eco system. To their credit, they were not aware of the consequences at that time. But, they are now.
My father understood a little of the effects of what this mining and even the wash streaming into the beautiful countryside and the bays and rivers that would and did eventually end up in the beautiful Caribbean Sea. If someone had warned them then, steps could have been taken to at least be eco sensitive in the mining and clean up of these sites.
All one must do is look closer at what they are seeing, and see the real devastation of the landscape.
I for one am on board with this type of eco awareness, parents need to do their part by telling their children what they are about to see and point it out to them the destruction and the beauty of nature.

The images presented here are compelling, disturbing, thought provoking, but they are not 'beautiful' in my sense of that word. The abject environmental devastation that is their subject is anything but beautiful whether seen from the ground or the air. While I thoroughly respect Mr. Fair's intentions and applaud his efforts to educate and illuminate his audience, please, let's preserve the dignity of the word beauty, a word better applied to unsullied nature and the efforts to preserve it.