I disagree. That's the old LAME excuse that as long as there is a bigger mess somewhere else, you don't have to deal with the smaller ones.
Why is something like an open pit coal mine a "mess"? Why make a normative statement about a particular fact of our technological existence? Open pit coal mines, like bolts, are neither good nor bad, but extensions of the technological world onto the natural. We are organic components of the technological world, using our biologic energy to enact the localized/delocalized "mind" of the/our technological consciousness. Your morals are a relic from a distant organic past.
I can't believe I actually agree with you 100% on something, CB!
BTW, what is the difference between the blight that is a strip mine and the blight of the Valley of the Kings?