Coal Mining: Can Clean Be The New Green?
When trying to choose a topic for my Response Paper, I came across the article on the SEED Magazine website titled “The Lesser Evil: Nuclear or Coal?” Because I not only live in a coal mining town, but also in a county that would no longer exist without the coal industry, I wanted to not only see what exactly was so “evil” about coal, but also how it could be made safer.
With global warming, acid rain and other issues coming into view in the present, I have mostly focused on the effect that coal mining has on the environment. The environmental effects that come from mining coal include the release of carbon dioxide and methane that are both contributing to the greenhouse effect. Hazardous gasses are not only released when burning coal, but also when pockets of gasses are released during mining. Soil and water tables are also harmed when acidic runoff drains into the subsoil and into water sources and changes the pH levels. When the soil table is changed, the soil can become infertile. The lack of vegetation can cause erosion, and can harm the chances of ever having agricultural biodiversity. When the pH of water is changed, the aquatic life may also die off. Mining not only changes the pH of water, but can also include draining or contamination of usable underground water.
The article from the SEED Magazine site brought up the fact that there is research going on right now that would help make mining clean. The mining would be cleaner in the fact that the emissions wouldn’t be so hard on the environment. When looking into the research a little further, I found that there have been plenty if ideas on how to make coal energy better for the environment. Wikipedia gave some e...
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...last statement. I don’t see why we should just throw out what we already know about coal as an energy source, and start completely over with something new that in twenty years could bring us right back to a situation like we are in now. Who knows what effects nuclear power, if that’s what comes next, could have on the environment or what emissions it could be producing in the future.
I now have learned what is so called “evil” about coal mining, but I also have seen that there are ways to give coal a better outlook in the future. I just hope that there will be more effort put into clean coal mining before people just give up on the source. With the fact that there is more than one option on making coal production and use cleaner, I believe that there is still a chance at helping make coal the new green option and clean up the environment at the same time.
I comprehend that the future of coal depends on change and innovation; I feel America needs to use clean energy in the future to protect our environment and public health. I think changes to the clean water act created ambiguity to coal companies, which allowed the dumping of mining waste into our nations waterways. Appalachia needs to rely less on coal mining and concentrate on diversifying the economy. Appalachia has an abundance of resources that can be urbanized to supply new jobs and clean energy methods, such as wind, solar, hydropower and biomass, which could support rural areas. With political and economic guidance, I believe Appalachia could transition from coal to clean energy.
Carbon, Max W. Nuclear Power: Villain or Victim?: Our Most Misunderstood Source of Electricity. Second ed. Madison, WI: Pebble Beach, 1997.
5). The high mortality rates are related to the environmental exposures of the coal mining along with other factors such as smoking, poverty, education, age, race and sex. “Higher lung cancer incidence and mortality in the Kentucky Appalachia is thought to result from higher smoking rates and correlates of poor socioeconomic conditions which limits the population access to health care” (Hendryx, O'Donnell, & Horn, 2008, p. 2). The population residing in coal mining areas, are exposed to contaminated water and air from the coal mining and there is a concern for respiratory illnesses related to the pollutants. The fumes or toxin released from the coal mine, this places the individual at a risk for respiratory issues such as emphysema, black lung, brown lung and
Coal also can be very damaging to the environment. People in the coal industry don’t always follow the precautions needed for helping the recovering environment that coal mining hurt. Most of the time water is polluted from the byproduct the is produced while mining coal. Like acid mine drainage, air pollution from coal-fired power plants, coal dust, coal sludge, and mountaintop
...nce World War II to the present day, the technology of nuclear power has increased significantly in terms of energy output and safety. The energy efficiency of nuclear power is far superior to its counterpart fossil fuel and renewable energy. Compared to fossil fuels, tiny amounts of fuel used by nuclear reactors is equivalent to a large sum of coal. This is a no brainer. Why mine a ton of coal when a little uranium can be used to gain the same amount of energy? Not only is it efficient, it’s safe to use. Used fuel is packed away in storage safely, so there isn’t any chance of radiation leaking out. In the present day, nuclear power incidents haven’t been occurring lately. Advancements in technology and equipment used have made nuclear energy a very reliable and safe source of energy. With today’s energy needs, nuclear power has the ability to keep up in the race.
“Face it. Nukes are the most climate-friendly industrial-scale form of energy” (Power, Reiss, Pearlstein, 655). This statement is what I’m trying to promote through my argument. It also ties Inconvenient Truths: 10 Green Heresies by Matt Powers, Spencer Reiss, and Jonanna Pearlstein and Nuclear Power is Best Energy Source: Potchef Stroom together by bring out the main point all authors are trying to get across. Global warming has been a big concern for years now and one of the biggest causes for it, is the burning of fossil fuels to get energy. People that live in the United States of America use a huge amount of energy in their daily lives and that amount continues to grow with our population growing with it. My purpose of this piece is to persuade people to switch to nuclear power for a cleaner energy source because it’s the cleanest energy source.
Media coverage of such cases have made the public less comfortable with the idea of moving further towards nuclear power and they only opt for reducing human activities to reduce global warming. It is true that there have been some notable disasters involving nuclear power, but compared to other power systems, nuclear power has an impressive track record. First, it is less harmful and second, it will be able to cater for the growing world population. Nuclear power produces clean energy and it delivers it at a cost that is competitive in the energy market (Patterson). According to the US Energy Information Administration, there are currently 65 such plants in the Unite States (National Research Council). They produce 19 percent of the total US energy generation.
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 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...
What comes to mind when you think of coal mining? If you're like me, coal mining means living in darkness and a cold hearted industry. Other words that come to mind are poverty and oppression. Coal mining is not a job that you dream about or get a degree for. People who are coal miners do not chose a life full of danger and repression, they get stuck with it. There are many dangers that come along with coal mining, not only for the workers, but for the environment. Coal mining and the coal industry have caused irreversible damage to our environment and has killed innocent miners.
The globalization of coal may be the top reason for climate change, especially in China. Particularly, burning coal is the biggest source greenhouse emissions. “China is currently building over 1 gigawatt of new coal plants every week.” 1 This is dangerous since those producing the coal, only use the energy and leave the carbon dioxide behind; dumping it into the atmosphere and increasing the greenhouse effect. As a result, the rise in temperature may
Burning and mining coal for fuel is harmful to the environment but because 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.
Greenhouse gasses that are released into the air when mining are harmful to the environment and the release of dust particulates negatively affect the ecosystems around the mines. As well as the air pollution there is usually a large amount of noise. In Gauteng large scale mining has caused the dolomite rock to cave in which has resulted in large sinkholes forming and earthquakes.
In our days, mining for resources is inevitable. The resources we need are valuable in everyday life. Such resources mined up are coal, copper, gold, silver, and sand. However, mining poses environmental risks that can degrade the quality of soil and water, which can end up effecting us humans if not taken care of and many of the damages are irreversible once they have occurred.
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)