Coal: An Enemy in Disguise I cringed in horror when I began to do some reading about the topic of coal mining and burning. I was shocked to find out that despite the many discussions amongst world leaders about reducing coal usage and seeking out cleaner energy to save our planet, by reducing green house emissions, several of the world’s economic power house countries are still using coal increasingly, because it is cheap. The Union of Concerned Scientists USA and Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) both have articles on their sites purporting this very fact; coal for energy is still a big business. Despite the fact that it is an energy, labour and capital intensive operation, as stated in the article that the Doctors for the Environment Australia wrote, it is still being used primarily to produce electricity in large quantities. The devastating impact that coal has on the societies in which it is mined and or burnt is appalling. I was shocked to note that the coal