Coal industry fends off concerns, keeps working on comeback

Pits of Despair

Some of the tap water in West Virginia's Mingo County is flowing in funny colors: red, brown, and black. Alarmed residents asked the state if the discoloration, caused by high levels of heavy metals including arsenic and lead, could be related to Big Coal's practice of injecting its waste underground. Regulators say there's no connection; instead, the cause could be an abandoned mine. "We're not saying the water isn't contaminated, it is. But in this case, it's not linked to the injection process," said state hydrologist George Jenkins v-e-r-y carefully. Residents have asked for a moratorium on slurry injection and sued a local coal company; both actions are pending. Meanwhile, Big Coal is making a Big Comeback as a "freedom fuel" across the nation, luring young, union-averse workers who haven't faced the labor and health issues familiar to veteran miners. "I was able to buy me a new truck and I got my wife a new car," said a 22-year-old miner in Illinois. And who can argue with that?

straight to the source: The Washington Post, Dale Russakoff, 16 Nov 2006

straight to the source: The State Journal, Beth Gorczyca-Ryan, 15 Nov 2006

see also, in Grist: In coal country, mining is destroying cemeteries and faith

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Naval War changes Climate

It is a shame that it seems necessary to regard historical naval wars as a kind of blessing. Their massive appearance and devastating forces serve as huge field for experiments. One needs only to sit down and compare time of activity and results on weather charts and weather statistics. If these "experiments" prove that naval war changed the regional weather and the course of the climate, it will serve as ample proof that any kind of ocean uses are serious forces to be taken into consideration when matters of climate changes are at stake.

You can read more at http://www.1ocean-1climate.com. There is a thesis on the impact that naval wars had on the ocean and on the climate change.

by adrianne at 12:07 PM on 04 Dec 2006

Climate change

Looking back in time, you can see that many intense encounters in the Barents Sea could have played a major role in the icing of the high North, in February 1915 and the harsh winter in the North-West of Europe (1916/17). Since early 1915, more than 450,000 tons of coal and 90,000 tons of weaponry had been shipped to the Russian port Archangel. Russian and German navies had laid thousands of sea mines. Dozen of minesweepers were permanently in service. U-boats sank 25 ships in late 1916 and 21 vessels between April and November 1917.

Dozens of mine fields with thousands of mines were placed in the Eastern Baltic Sea. Many naval activities took place every day, for four years. British and Russian submarines operated successfully. The increase of sea icing during the war years (1914-1918) can be attributed to the naval warfare from the Baltic waters.

You can find more of these facts on http://www.1ocean-1climate.com. Summing those, you will see an interesting theory on the reasons for the climate change.

by adrianne at 12:10 PM on 04 Dec 2006

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