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socialistfuture
21st June 2007, 16:19
I'd like this thread to explore Coal Mining and the place it has in the world at current.
China has the worst coal mining condition in the world (well the deadliest). I watched a film not that long ago called 'the devils miner' about child slavery mining in south america. - anyone seen it?
http://www.thedevilsminer.com/index_new.html
Below is some media from one of the many incidents that occur in China.




A coal mine blast in northern China has killed two miners and trapped 10 others, state media said Wednesday, in the latest accident to strike the disaster-prone mining industry.

The explosion late Tuesday in Wuhai, a city in the Inner Mongolia region, occurred as 13 miners were working underground, the Xinhua News Agency reported.


One miner escaped. Two bodies have been retrieved with the other workers still missing, it said. Rescue efforts were under way.


The colliery, the privately owned Kanghai Coal Mine, was built in 1993 and produces 30,000 tons of coal a year, the agency said. It was undergoing a technical upgrade when the blast hit, it added.


Separately, there was still no word on the fate of 30 miners trapped in a flooded mine in northeast China's Jilin province since Sunday.


Some 69 miners were working at the Tengda Coal Mine in the city of Jiaohe when it flooded, and emergency workers on Monday rescued 39 miners from the pit alive, state media have said.


Rescuers were still looking for the remaining miners.


China's coal mines are the deadliest in the world, with thousands of deaths reported every year in fires, floods, cave-ins, gas leaks and other disasters.


Many accidents are blamed on lack of required equipment or indifference to safety rules, and China's surging energy needs are driving up demand for coal.


On Monday, the government said four people were killed when gas caught fire in a coal mine in the northern city of Gaoping.

Pawn Power
22nd June 2007, 07:58
Coal burning provides about 50% of electricity in the US.

Janus
22nd June 2007, 20:19
In the PRC, it supplies around 80% of the country's electricity and since China still has easily accessible coal reserves, this dependency probably won't shift for quite a while.

socialistfuture
24th June 2007, 00:09
if China commits to Kyoto or reducing emissions inb some other way it might, but seing as Australia and America have not commited it is not required to.

China may overtake the US in the emmisions game at some stage, India is growing massivly too and will over take China population wise in the near future.

Sugar Hill Kevis
28th June 2007, 16:43
Originally posted by [email protected] 23, 2007 11:09 pm
if China commits to Kyoto or reducing emissions inb some other way it might, but seing as Australia and America have not commited it is not required to.
America and Australia didn't commit because China was exempt from Kyoto, owing to the fact it's an LEDC

socialistfuture
28th June 2007, 23:17
they didnt refuse because of that - they didnt want to act - and still dont. bush was a climate skeptic till recent. policy wise thats not surprising considering the amunt of presidential funding he received from the oil and motorcar lobbies (and his dad was an oil man).

they use china as their lil excuse for failing to act- while the rest of the developed world is signed up. and kyoto is far from adequate - it was designed as a first step.