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Killer coal finally falls out of fashion
Turkey lost some 1,000 miners in accidents between 2002 and 2012. But even this appalling tally fades into insignificance besides the more than 100,000 killed in the United States during the last century, or even the 6,027 fatalities in China alone in 2004.
That’s just the start. More than 75,000 American miners have died of pneumoconiosis just since 1968, and the incidence of the disease, after dropping dramatically, is now rising again as people work longer hours in smaller pits where dust seems to be less well suppressed. And one in every six suffers from bronchitis, even if they do not smoke.
...
Nevertheless, as the International Energy Agency reported this week, its use continues to grow “unrelentingly”. Some 1,200 new coal-fired power stations are planned around the world...
Yet there are signs of change. President Obama is expected to announce a crackdown on US coal-burning in the next two weeks, defying danger to Democratic seats in mining states. The Californian port of Oakland has turned down a terminal to export the mineral, though it would have brought thousands of jobs and $3 million a year.
There is a growing revolt against it in India. And China has begun closing coal-fired power stations and curtailing the construction of new ones in order to combat devastating air pollution in its cities: some experts expect its carbon emissions to peak next decade. In all, Citibank concluded this week, demand for coal is in “structural decline”.
That’s just the start. More than 75,000 American miners have died of pneumoconiosis just since 1968, and the incidence of the disease, after dropping dramatically, is now rising again as people work longer hours in smaller pits where dust seems to be less well suppressed. And one in every six suffers from bronchitis, even if they do not smoke.
...
Nevertheless, as the International Energy Agency reported this week, its use continues to grow “unrelentingly”. Some 1,200 new coal-fired power stations are planned around the world...
Yet there are signs of change. President Obama is expected to announce a crackdown on US coal-burning in the next two weeks, defying danger to Democratic seats in mining states. The Californian port of Oakland has turned down a terminal to export the mineral, though it would have brought thousands of jobs and $3 million a year.
There is a growing revolt against it in India. And China has begun closing coal-fired power stations and curtailing the construction of new ones in order to combat devastating air pollution in its cities: some experts expect its carbon emissions to peak next decade. In all, Citibank concluded this week, demand for coal is in “structural decline”.
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/coal/10836848/Killer-coal-finally-falls-out-of-fashion.html