Send Prayers for Coal Miners in China, the Ukraine and Elsewhere.
A book called Coal Mountain Elementary about the human cost of the coal mining brought me to tears more than once, and sent me on an oddyssey to find out more about the pain caused by unsafe coal mining conditions around the world. I could not find any good systematic coal mine death statistics (how cold those words sound, refering to the flesh and blood humans who continue to die in horrifying numbers). The numbers I share here are drawn from many different sources and provides a reasonably complete picture of the human price, past and present of underground mining for coal. Please join me in sending your prayers to those who have lost loved ones in mining accidents in Australia, France, India, Japan, Poland, the United Kingdom, the United States where thousands of coal miners have lost their lives since records have been kept. And special prayers for miners and their families in the Ukraine where since the 1990s coal mine fatalities have averaged more than 300 a year. And words fail when we consider China where according to official statistics, more than 250,000 coal miners have died in mining accidents since the inception of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Since 2000 official coal mine death numbers, mostly migrant peasants from rural areas, have ranged from >3200 to 7200 each year. The actual death toll is considered by knowledgeable people to be two or three times higher than that. Mark Nowak, author of Coal Mountain Elementary regularly posts news of recent mine disasters: Coal Mountain Mine Disasters
Coal Combustion Waste (CCW)
After 30 years of avoiding taking action to promulgate national standards for protecting human healt and the environment from the many adverse impacts of disposal and use of coal combustion waste, the U.S. EPA in on the verge of proposing regulations. A coalition of national, state and local citizens' and environmental organizations are working together the ensure that these regulations really protect human health and the environment.
Act Now (by March 30, 2010): Call the U.S.
EPA and Office of Management and Budget and say you support classification
of Coal Combustion Waste as hazardous waste
Background on Health and Environmental Hazards of CCW:
Center for Media and Democracy: Coal Waste and Coal Fly Ash articles
Center for Public Integrity: Map of Coal Ash Locations
Earthjustice: Coal Ash: A Danger to the Public (links to several reports)
Environmental Integrity Project: Disaster in Waiting: Toxic Coal Ash Disposal in Impundments at Power Plants (January 2009) and Analysis of EPA's Study of Coal Ash Risks (May 2009)
Sierra Club: Coal Ash. See also Beyond Coal Reports and Fact Sheets
Stop Mountain Top Removal
Act Now (posted January 10, 2010): Call President Obama and ask him to act decisively to end Mountain Top Removal Mining
Click on incon below for more information
11/16/09 Act Now. Ask you Congressional Representative to Cosponsor
the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310) and your Senators to Cosponsor
the Appalachia Restoration Act (ARA) (S696). Both bills would effectively
ban the dumping of mine waste into streams, without which mountaintop removal
would not be possible and both bills are likely to see action within the
next few months. Find
Contact Information to Congressional Representatitves/Senators.
Pizarchik Nomination for Office of Surface Mining: No Action requested at this time.
11-7-09 Pizarkchik nomination approved by Senate 11-6-09 after
being held up for four or five weeks by grassroots pressure: Citizen's
Coal Council Update
11-3-09 More background: Facing
Coal Hard Facts at Interior Department
10-30-09 Citizen's
Coal Council Alert--Contact Senators and ask to oppose Pizarchik Nomination
9-18-09 [Background] Russell
Boulding Letter on Pizarchik Nomination to Senate Subcommittee
