Appalachia

Ziemkiewicz grew up in Appalachia, outside Pittsburgh, where, he said, "acid mine drainage was just way of life. Streams tended to be orange."

In Appalachia, no ecosystem is better at capturing carbon dioxide than red spruce forests.

A thick forest of pine trees encircles their subdivision, and beyond that, in the distance, is the shadow of the mountain, one of those low hills at the cusp of Appalachia in northern Alabama.