Coal is something like a rock, hard, dark colored, and found in and along the ground. It is filled of a lot chemicals mixed together all in a solid form. These chemicals are very harmful to both the environment and health of an individual if not properly managed. The diverse sorts of coals are Anthracite, bituminous, subbituminous, and lignite. Coal is mined out of the ground and used to produce vitality. While It helps the economy, we should find a safer way to use coal because it not only damages the environment, but pollutes the air, and damages peoples’ health. Coal has been a major asset in our country since we realized how many things in life it could enhance, so there have been a lot of positives that come from coal mining. Such as, …show more content…
Mines not being regulated properly has been a problem since the mines originally began opening, hence the passing of the Mines Regulation Act of 1964. This law basically states that all mines should be held at a specific standard for the safety of all the employees and the environment, and if the law is not followed, there are serious fines and punishments. Even today, America struggles to keep coal mines properly regulated and some even pay off inspectors to keep their operation running. For example, in Kentucky, Silas House had a family member buried in a graveyard that was later approved for a mining site. Upon their approval they were to properly remove every grave present and transfer them to a new location before using the property. The coal mining company completely disregarded the transferring of the graves and began to mine the ground immediately. The graves were covered with 50 feet of coal within a matter of days. Also, besides the fact that some mines do not follow the rules, a coal mine is only a temporary use of land and is often not properly cleaned up. Mines can stretch up to 15 square miles and possibly have to be flown over. Not to mention that the roads could crumble and cave in due to overloaded trucks (“The Dirt on
When analyzing John Bartlow Martin case study the main reasons of the tragedy of Centralia No.5 were cause of heavy coal dust, which eventually exploded. This event could have been averted if official of the Illinois Department of Mines and Minerals and also United States Bureau of Mines inspected the mines carefully and followed all recommendations. When Driscoll O. Scanlan the inspector of the state came across penal code violation when inspecting Centralia No.5 he made recommendation to the company and state but his reports were not followed. In some of his reports stated by this quote “ rock dusting, improving ventilation, wetting the coal to reduce dust - at this mine is highly explosive, and would readily propagate an explosion” several reports were send to the state and federal government.
This act dramatically changed the safety in mines
Coal mines in these times were glorified death traps and collapsed. Often. Workers or their families were basically never compensated for anything, and even when they took things to court, essentially no court was sympathetic toward any coal miner or their family, and if their father or brother died, they were on their on for the rest of their life, often then forcing child boys to work if they weren’t already. Also, not many workers spoke proper english in the mines, so they could not read instruction signs, and by misuse of equipment, killing themselves and/or other
Historically it was used as a domestic fuel and was mainly utilized to run steam powered engines, provide heat for buildings, generate electricity at an efficient rate and also provided the high heat temperatures that were required to extract specific metals from their ores, otherwise known as metallurgy. Although the modern world has nearly moved away from using coal as a primary source of energy; the trials and tribulations regarding the gathering of this fuel throughout history has created employment, powered the boom of the industrial revolution and also posed many circumstances that could be considered disastrous and/or non-compliant to human rights as we see it today.
The myths must be dispelled. First of all, coal is not a bountiful. It is a nonrenewable resource and, according to a United States Geologic Survey, it is only expected...
...y question, what good is a profession that destroys your home and your body? While environmental groups make the protection of people and the environment of the Appalachian region top priority, the mining companies focus on acting cheaply, not responsibly. And the policy government keeps their heads in the sand when it comes to this issue because they seek benefits of steady jobs and tax revenue of coal mining instead of seeking to guarantee clean water for Appalachians.
Roughly 68 percent of the electricity generated in the United States of America is produced by fossil fuels. That includes petroleum, natural gases and coal. Although coal contributes around 37 percent to the factor, it is by far not the cleanest of them all. Some might argue that it is good for the economy because it is cheap and it creates jobs.. But the other side of the story portrays coal mining as a process that kills thousands of coal miners a year and that it practically destroys the environment around the mining with soot and air pollution. Mining now days is a big part of urbanization; due to how cheap the process is. There are different ways that coal mining is done. Mainly mountain top removal is done but there are many other
Coal, coal, coal, it is everywhere, and in the 1920’s people found out how powerful it was. There was a great move to find and get as much coal they could. So many people packed up what they had and went to mine coal for a living, but soon found out that it was not a wonderful life. It was hard and tough life. People somehow found a way to survive in these old Kentucky hills. Mining has improved greatly over the years by the type of equipment they have produced and the new safety restrictions they have put in place but mining it is still a hard life. There are still challenges that they face every day. People overcome them and face the fear that comes with the. People come and go in this old Kentucky hill but what they do when they are here changes them forever.
Coal has a very negative impact on the environment, one of the main impacts on the environment is the actual process of extracting the coal from the ground. The two ways that coal is mined, underground and surface, both have different effects on the environment. The first way that coal is mined is by digging tunnels and creating mineshafts underground and then removing the coal from th...
Perhaps the most infamous American example of a coal mine fire is Centralia, a town in the anthracite region of eastern Pennsylvania. Centralia was like any other coal town until one fateful day in 1962, when a heap of burning trash in a dump that doubled as a mine stripping pit quickly spread to other parts of the mine. After a few months of bureaucratic haggling, the local government finally agreed to drill to suffocate the fire, but it had spread faster than had been anticipated and could not easily be contained. In the next few years, subsequent efforts to quell the fire proved futile while it expanded beyond the confines of the coal mine to other areas underneath people’s residences in the town of Centralia.
In her book Coal A Human History, Barbara Freese states "The mundane mineral that built our global economyand even today powers our electrical plantshas also caused death, disease, and environmental destruction" (front flap) Today, coal provides for more than 55% of the electricity generated in the U.S. (Cullen, Robert Vol.272) Coal miners have had one of the most dangerous jobs in history before government regulation. Many miners had to work underground for 10 + hours a day and 6 days a week(Cobb, James "Coal") The number of deaths per year is the equivalent of a Titanic going down in the nation's coal fields each year (Turkington, Carol) According to James Cobb from the World Book Online Reference Center mine safety involves four main types of problems including accidents involving machinery, roof and rib failures, accumulations of gases and concentrations of coal dust.
Imagine having a loved one with cancer, organ damage, nervous system disorders, or your child having birth defects. Imagine running out of clean water because the only water available is capable of catching fire. Imagine oil in rivers and animals losing their homes. See yourself caught in an earthquake where there should not be one. All of this is increased by fracking and can be prevented. The question is should fracking continue or should it be banned.
In 2007, the world consumed 5.3 billion tons of coal, 31.1 billion tons of oil, 2.92 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, and 65,000 tons of uranium. All of these energy needs could have been met with only 6,600 tons of thorium, an abundant, slightly radioactive element found in the Earth’s crust.
Burning and mining coal for fuel is harmful to the environment, but because of how cheap and easy it is to find, many people are unwilling to give it up as a fuel source. One of the problems with coal is that they are limited and are non-renewable, so once it has been used we won’t be able to use it again. When coal gets burned, they start to release harmful, dangerous toxins such as mercury, lead and arsenic that will then escape into the air. It also releases large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. These emissions increase the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere and lead to global warming.
Fuels like coal, and oil that once were a fine innovation in creating energy are now rapidly deleting and one day will be gone forever; energy that won’t last is often referred to as non-renewable energy. Besides being set up to fail and become inefficient in the future, fossil fuel energy is not clean to use and poses several environmental complications. Coal, for instance is “the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. Coal combustion not only produces sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides that contribute to acid rain and snow, it generates millions of tons of particulates that cause asthma and other respiratory diseases.” As with all usage of fossil fuels, it creates enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, which contributes to greenhouse gas. Not only are fossil fuels dirty, they also pose as a security risk and unforgiving on the American wallet. (Saini)