Coal Mining Research Paper

Coal mining is not just dangerous to the environment but also a big life and health risk to the workers themselves. Coal miners live the risk of getting trapped in the coal mines if something goes wrong as in an explosive goes off and covers the way out. Since coal mines are deep into mountain sides the possibility of getting the workers out is very low because it is very hard to reach them. In a mine in Mexico, 65 miners got trapped and died due to an explosion that went wrong. There are approximately 6,000 deaths every year in the mines of china. They are the ones that cause the most deaths.

All though coal has a cheap price to it, the damage it does to mother nature is far more greater. The world consumption of coal was the amount of 100million tons of oil in 1860. As of now it has increased dramatically, up to 2200 tons in the year 2000. It is easy to see the life time of coal consumption by simply dividing the coal reserves consumption, and the numbers add up to about 250 years worth. Foreign countries like China are building coal power plants at an alarming rate, it is assumed that a two 500MW coal fired power plants are being built every week.

One coal power station can produce up to one million tons of ash, 21,000 tons of sludge, and half a million tons of gypsum. 11 millions tons of carbon dioxide is also released into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is not the only gas that comes out of these horrible coal plants. 16,000 tons of sulphur dioxide, 29,000 tons of nitrogen oxide have a great affect on the atmosphere, as in climate change and also acid rain. Acid rain is a serious issue because of the fact that it can damage plant life and cause them to die and can also damage lakes by sterilizing them and killing