Fantastic miner "cartoon"

[bobbolink]

As with all great cartoonists, no words necessary:

http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=46088

[Nikki Stone1]

1. Hey bobbo

:hi:

[bobbolink]

2. Isn't this brilliantly well-done?

:hi:

[Nikki Stone1]

4. Yes it is.

:)

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. It appears to be an iPad 'toon

n/t

[Nikki Stone1]

6. With a miner on the plug

Nothing electronic is really green, and coal is burned for electricity.

[bobbolink]

10. Isn't it a shame we don't stop to think of all the "little" people who make our lives work?

Instead, we worship the $$$$.

Even this horrific tragedy won't change that. :cry:

[Cronus Protagonist]

12. I didn't even notice that

Perhaps that's the point.

[Nikki Stone1]

15. Bingo

,

[Cirque du So-What]

9. It has more to do

with the inescapable fact that the US is dependent upon coal - which is pretty fucking far from 'green' - for our electricity needs. Even though a technology that reduces paper usage is praiseworthy, it's still plugged into a power grid that obtains 57% of its electricity from coal-fired power plants. Neither coal nor coal-mining are going away anytime soon - if ever. The cartoon emphasizes the need to reduce that percentage whenever possible and also to enforce mining safety regulations.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Sad that it took "only" 25+ deaths to make us aware of this

Coal actually kills between 500,000 and two million people each year around the world, depending on which epidemiological criteria you choose.

China has a far higher death rate from coal mining than we do. South-Eastern Europe is also a big coal-mining and miner-killing area; Eastern Europe and Northern China have incredibly dirty "coal corridors".

I'm actually amazed that the dangers of using coal for energy have escaped mass notice until recently. Still, better late than never.

--d!

[bobbolink]

7. Extremely well-said. Thank you. And thanks to a brilliant cartoonist.

:cry:

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. They've not escaped notice - they've been deliberately glossed over.

Part of the destruction of organized labor. The coal miners were integral to the development of the labor movement in this country, and mine safety was always a prime issue for the unions. The lack of attention to the issue and the undermining (if I may be excused the pun) of the unions are not coincidental.

[Cirque du So-What]

14. Seldom mentioned by the so-called 'pro-life' crowd

is the documented effect of mercury released into the environment when coal is burned as boiler feedstock. Besides the detrimental effects on the liver, the kidneys & the immune system, mercury can cause birth defects, miscarriages and developmental problems before the babies are even born. For all the outrage that the born-again taliban displays over a woman's right to choose whether to carry a fetus to term, I've never heard a single negative word from one of them concerning mercury's effects upon the unborn. Sanctimonious sacks of shit don't get to pick & choose when to evoke the 'sanctity of life.'

[bobbolink]

16. From your keyboard to the monitor of the goddess.

You have an eloquent way of expressing all of this.

You know, there is a group of Evangelicals who are focusing on the environment, and are doing an admirable job of fighting "mountain topping". I think they would be very open to what you are expressing. Maybe this is what they will take on next.

They are called "Creation Care", and I first saw them on Bill Moyers a few years ago, and am quite impressed. They aren't afraid to say what is, and in that part of the country, that takes courage.

If my hands weren't so full, I would suggest this to them.

Thank you for your words..... your clarity is so true.

[ThomWV]

20. Only 25 deaths? Thousands have died in the mines and tens of thousands from working in the mines

[Xenotime]

32. agreed. and america goes on with lives while others suffer.

[Dogmudgeon]

33. You are correct, of course

But almost all of those other deaths have gone unnoticed.

These 29 (the final four were found last night) have caught our notice, mainly because there were so many joined in death at once, but also because of FOUR Chinese mine accidents in the previous week, including the rescue of over 100 trapped miners who had been feared lost. People were primed by news in the background when the Massey mine disaster struck.

Daring rescues in the USA (and occasionally elsewhere) are reported in great detail, the miners lauded as heroes. Agonizing, terror-stricken deaths are ignored. Then they are forgotten.

Mine disasters are utterly forgettable, for some reason, maybe the fact that we've been dealing with them for over 200 years and have grown jaded. Unlike nuclear energy (mainly in the West), or chemical pollution from PV solar technology (mainly in Asia), it is not a politically polarized subject.

As late as the 1950s, over 100,000 miners died, worldwide, just mining coal. I think the number is in the high hundreds now.

--d!

[Beacho]

8. Perfect

I nice way to express my prole rage when someone says something stupid

[bobbolink]

13. The Gift Of The Poor

"The Gift of the Poor
The people with the best sense of what is essential to a community, of what gives and maintains its spirit, are often doing very humble, manual tasks. It is often the poorest person - the one who has a handicap or who is ill or old - who is the most prophetic. People who carry responsibility must be close to them and know what they think, because it is often they who are free enough to see with the greatest clarity the needs, beauty and pain of the community."
- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 262

[laughingliberal]

17. +1000 nt

[bobbolink]

19. Thank you for seeing the beauty in those words. He is my hero.

:pals:

[laughingliberal]

21. Easy to see why. nt

[truedelphi]

26. Loving that quote, bobbolink.

Will be using it in my "noire" that is not just a detective novel but a theatre of the absurd and surrealistic montage of live in the world as we have known it since Reagan.


Oh and K & R.

[laughingliberal]

18. K & R nt

[Warpy]

22. Shameless K&R

This really says it all.

Deep mining is some of the dirtiest, most unpleasant and most dangerous work out there.

We should pay them better than we pay stockbrokers. A just society would.

I hope someday they'll all be able to work above ground, installing and repairing clean energy systems.

[bobbolink]

23. Thank you, Warpy. It does say it all... the little person making the sacrifices to make it all

work, and are ignored for their sacrifices.

I think in that respect they are like the military, except without the acknowledgement.

:patriot:

Maybe we need to start some sort of movement in that direction....?

[malaise]

24. Brilliant

K & R

[bobbolink]

25. Indeed. Brilliant clarity of vision.

Now, if the population just takes heed.

:hi:

[Bluebear]

27. Profound, sad, entirely true.

[bobbolink]

29. Thank you, Bluebear. You are exactly right. :(

[RamboLiberal]

28. Noted Pittsburgh cartoonist Rob Rogers had same idea today

[bobbolink]

30. That's great. Thank you for this.

Hurrah for cartoonists! :applause:

[G_j]

31. well done

yes, people are that dumb..

:cry: