Paradise
When my son graduated from college we had a party.
​
Friends hosted us at this house in Paradise, California.
​
(please see bowtie-shaped photo)
​
A few years later the "Camp" fire swept through Paradise
(photo further below).
​
Our friends survived;
but as with most residents of Paradise, the flames transformed their home into piles of ashes and rubble.
​
​
​
​
In 1971 the country/folk musician John Prine recorded his song about Paradise, Kentucky
which was also disfigured by pollution-related events, as People magazine described:
​
"folk singer John Prine...wrote an affecting ballad about Paradise lost"
"Daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County, down by the Green River where Paradise lay.
Well, I’m sorry my dear but you’re too late in asking, Mr. Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away."
​
​
​
​
In 2019 it was decided to close the last unit of the Paradise coal-fired power plant, despite the objections of President Donald Trump and Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin. "The Paradise Fossil Plant...is located near the site of the former town of Paradise, Kentucky on the Green River."
​
scientificamerican.com/article/and-now-the-really-big-coal-plants-begin-to-close
​
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Fossil_Plant
​
tva.gov/Energy/Our-Power-System/Coal/Paradise-Fossil-Plant
​
​