Something to Think About

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 mining and combustion process involves –

• ·         mining the coal, which may include removing/blasting mountain tops to get at the coal seams below the mountains, (destroying forestry in the process, permanently altering landscapes),
• ·         disposing of contaminated water and tailing (Acid Mine Drainage) which is from coal washing after mining, and during other processes to produce energy,
• ·         transporting the coal- which is dusty and contaminates the air,
• ·         burning the coal – which further adds to air pollution, because several harmful green house gases are released, notably carbon dioxide and black carbon into the air, and
• ·         disposing of post combustion waste, which is also another air and water pollutant!

And amid all of this, there is still the alarming trend, noted by the article produced by the Union of Concerned Scientists in the USA, that though the use of coal as energy source has tripled since the 1960s, in America, the employment in the sector has fallen considerably over the years! Remember this industry is labour intensive. If employment is decreasing, it simply means the workers have to do more, and they are being directly exposed to all the harmful processes of coal mining and burning. To add to their unfortunate predicament, they also have to contend with coal fires,  both in the mining and combustion processes. Not to mention their exposure to heavy metals – such as: lead, mercury and tin; minute exposure is not detrimental, but over exposure can be lethal.

Further reading lead me to realise some of the very harmful effects of coal mining that has me scared, since the Chinese are planning to build a 1000 Mega Watt power plant in Jamaica, powered by coal! Of course they plan to supply this plant with coal from China, but the combustion process will take place here! Health problems range from: cardiovascular related and chronic respiratory diseases to chronic kidney diseases. Illnesses such as: cardiopulmonary disease, hypertension, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, (Source Watch 2015) and (DEA  2012).

But that’s the impact on human life alone, what about the environment; the air pollution, acid rain, smog, carbon dioxide emissions – a powerful green house gas contributor, coal dust, coal fires, coal sludge, deforestation, loss or degraded underground water quality, and exposure to heavy metals such as mercury. Plus in Jamaica's case, this will be further compounded by the fact that the Chinese will be operating a bauxite mining plant in Jamaica! If these things harm us, it must harm other living things too.

Wow, what more will it take to get us all to look to other energy sources fully? If we continue like this, we are going to die. The cost on the health sector to treat chronic health illnesses related to the coal mining and burning processes should have deterred us ages ago. I guess we can’t give up cheap energy for our health sake. We do need to charge our expensive smart phones, tablets and other gadgets, don’t we?  I mean technology and more automated everything is the way forward; it’s advancement, we need cheap energy to sustain this, even if it kills us!

 It may cost more to get the cleaner energy on board, but it will cost us less in health crisis in the long run. Or maybe we are waiting for half of the world’s population to drop down dead before we do something about this. Any takers?

Pictures in this blog are courtesy of Pixabay - https://pixabay.com/ 

References

Doctors for the Environment Australia,. (2012) The Mining and Burning of Coal: Effects on Health and the Environment. Retrieved on 11 October 2016 from http://dea.org.au/news/article/the_mining_and_burning_of_coal_effects_on_health_and_the_environment.

Source Watch, . (2015). Environmental Impacts of Coal. Retrieved on 11 October 2016, from http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_impacts_of_coal.

Union of Concerned Scientists USA,. (?) Energy: Coal and Other Fossil Fuels. Environmental Impacts of Coal Power: Fuel Supply. Retrieved on 11 October 2016, from http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/coalvswind/c02a.html#.V_zcx-grK1s.

Union of Concerned Scientists USA,. (?) Energy: Coal and Other Fossil Fuels. How Coal Works. Retrieved on 11 October 2016, from http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/coal-and-other-fossil-fuels/how-coal-works.html#.V_zy4-grK1s

Wikipedia,. (2016). Environmental Impact of the Coal Industry. Retrieved on 11 October 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_the_coal_industry.