To free the congealed sun!

Anthracite Coal

Energy flows through the natural world through myriads of natural cycles. The sun is the basis for virtually all the biology we know to exist. The web of life begins with the sun's radiant energy converting simple elements to complex molecular strings of carbon, hydrogen and a spattering of other elements.  Life is intrinsically bound to a vast array of cycles of energy and matter.  Some of these cycles can be hundreds of millions of years in duration. Coal is created through the interplay of photosynthesis and geologic forces. Plant life that does not decompose or bur back to its constituent element is buried by erosion and tectonic processes.

Coal beds are essentially repositories of stored solar energy. When humans discovered the utility of coal as a fuel, it set in motion a process of energy release, hitherto unseen in the natural world. Later the same occurred with petroleum and natural gas. Anthropomorphic (human-caused) forces now shape this planet alongside erosion and plate tectonics, but they do so on a radically different scale of time. What nature took hundreds of millions of years to store, humans release in a relative instant. It has only been a few centuries that we have been burning coal, less than that for the other fossil fuels.

Today, thanks to decades of scientific inquiry, we recognize the need to move away from these natural resources. Societies around the world are experiencing the consequences of increasing carbon in the atmosphere and are mobilizing to shift towards green energy systems. Not all of humanity has come to that conclusion. There are still powerful actors in the world who have chosen to defy our new understanding.

Figure 1 - http://www.thirdway.org/

Cutting environmental regulations to spur the coal industry cuts against the effort to protect human civilization from the devastating consequences of climate change. Such actions are based on the idea that coal will provide for economic growth and will protect well-paid coal jobs. The truth is that the coal industry has worked to undermine those good jobs for decades for the sake of increasing profits. Well paying union jobs are virtually gone, replaced by low-paid contractual work. The biggest culprit, as figure 1 shows, has been a steady increase in productivity spurred by automation.

Figure 2 - https://commons.wikimedia.org

Figure 3 - https://commons.wikimedia.org

In the last century, production has increased dramatically as jobs have declined (figures 2 and 3).  In addition, because of changes in the global market, the demand grown has slowed way down. Coal is losing it's appeal as the world shifts to new forms of green energy. To reduce pollution control will  have a very limited effect in bringing back jobs. It may increase production slightly but that will likely be offset by new automation.







Coal production is not only associated with climate change and all the dire consequences associated with it, it is also strongly linked to many health risks and early deaths. We should leave coal buried, after all the stone age didn't end when we ran out of stones.