Ecology
At the same time, however, mass environmental injustice plagues Appalachia. Beginning with European colonization of Indigenous lands and continuing with highly extractive coal mining, Mountaintop Removal Mining, and the attempted installation of massive pipelines, industrial capitalism continues to take its toll on the region. These extractive processes have resulted in immense harm to both humans and non-human nature throughout the region.
Many of the artists depicting Appalachia reflect this juxtaposition between environmental beauty and destruction in their work. Whether directly addressing specific instances of injustice, using scavenging assemblage methods to repurpose "trash" around them, or blurring the lines between "human" and "nature," LGBTQ+ Appalachian artists rarely remain neutral when it comes to the ecology of the region.