How Green was my Valley? The 1939 novel and film of the same name, by Richard Llewellyn, was based in Victorian times in the Welsh valleys where the green countryside was being progressively destroyed by mining for the coal which lay beneath. It provided the classic conflict between development and nature, seeking out food and progress, but at what price?

Environmentalist Greens view our world from this perspective; the trees and valleys must be saved from being buried under mining dust.