Idu Sarker lost his leg in a coal mining accident in Bangladesh and is now struggling to find work in the country’s coal region. His fellow workers tell author William Vollman that “there is no substitute” for coal and they are unfamiliar with the concept of global warming. Many workers around the world are working in oil, gas and coal just to make a decent living. In Vollman’s extensive travels he portrays the lives of laborers and executives in different parts of the vast fossil fuel system—a system that drives the global economy.

Michelle Romero advocates on behalf of people of color in the United States who often live in fenceline communities near factories and refineries. She supports a price on carbon pollution and is fighting efforts to dismantle climate and clean energy progress.