Canary in a Coalmine
The latest United Nations Human Development Report categorically mentions that climate change may reverse human development in the 21st century. But, two of the largest emitters of CO2 – US and Australia – are not even part of the Kyoto Protocol. US, instead, is focussing on two so-called “advanced” coal technologies to substitute petroleum use. JASON FULTS explains how this new source will have grave implications for the entire planet. But more critically, for the local people.
COAL currently supplies more than half of the US's electricity. Its consumption increased by about 11 per cent between 1996 and 2006. And the Energy Information Administration estimates that 139giga-watts of new coal-based generating capacity will be added to the country's energy grids by 2030. But who would bear the brunt of this development? The mining communities.
Appalling Appalachia
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STRIPPING OFF
One of the most destructive forms of coal mining practiced in Appalachia is surface or strip mining, locally known as mountaintop removal. Heavy machinery and high-powered explosives remove the part of the mountain that covers the coal seam, and dump the resulting waste into nearby valleys and streams. This proves as a labour and money-saving method of mining for the coal companies. The consequences are none of their business.
According to the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research organisation, mountaintop removal has ‘buried or polluted more than 1,200 miles (1900 kilometers) of streams, destroyed more than seven per cent of Appalachia’s forests, and eliminated entire communities. If current trends continue over the next decade, affected land will cover 2,200 square miles (nearly 5,700 square kilometers)’. |
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One community that has been severely affected by coal consumption is Appalachia. The region, which includes parts of 13 US states, has some of the richest coal seams in the world. Its mountainous terrain has helped to develop and preserve a culture in relative isolation. However, with the tapping of coal deposits in the 19th century, the region attracted a wave of immigrants. Today, over 20 million people live here, and the region is undergoing rapid economic, cultural, and demographic changes.
The region has supplied coal to the US (one-third of coal consumption per year) and other nations for generations, too often at great ecological and social costs. As Teri Blanton, a native of Appalachia and anti-mining activist says, “My home county, Harlan (a coal mining county in Appalachian eastern Kentucky), has produced over 1 billion tonnes of coal in the past century. Yet…
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