Coal mining (quite literally) helped to build America into the global force it is today.
This fossil fuel was an essential part of the Industrial Revolution in the US, and a big part of transforming this nation from an agrarian powerhouse to a much more industrialized nation. When electricity was first discovered (by Benjamin Franklin, with his little key-and-the-kite experiment) a source of fuel to allow us to channel that force was sought, and coal was right there to answer the bell.
Providing heat, electricity, and power to millions and millions of people in the US (and hundreds of millions – billions, maybe – all over the world), coal mining is a critical part of our modern world and a foundation of the “invisible” infrastructure we all rely on so much.
Dirty, dangerous, and terribly inefficient, there are some real and serious drawbacks to this kind of industrialization that need to (but haven’t yet, for one reason or another) been addressed.
Let’s break down some of those coal mining pros and cons right now!
List of Pros of Coal Mining
1. Coal (unlike many other fossil fuels) is very plentiful and relatively cheap, simply because it doesn’t require a tremendous amount of refinement before it can be used
2. Coal also happens to be very stable and safe to store, something that cannot be said about major power sources and fuels like nuclear material, for example
3. Coal mining operations (and all of the ancillary support industries) provide millions and millions of jobs all over the world
4. Coal mining states with large supplies and deposits have been able to leverage the resources they control to improve their infrastructure and their states welfare
List of Cons of Coal Mining
1. Coal mining operations have been proven out to be very damaging to the local environment and ecosystems, and strip mining scars will be seen on this planet for decades and decades to come
2. Heat from the coal produced in these mines contributes directly to greenhouse gasses responsible for global warming
3. Coal mining illnesses and the risk of injury is a very real concern. Millions have died from coal mining accidents and conditions like “The Black Lung”
4. Coal deposits will eventually run out completely and when that happens it’ll take millions and millions of years to create new ones. This is not a renewable resource by any stretch of the imagination, which means coal mining has a finite (though distant) expiration date
All things considered, there are a lot of pros and cons to the process of coal mining (as there is with pretty much everything in the universe).
One of the most important fuel sources we depend on every single day to live our lives, coal mining operations have been conclusively proven to destroy the world that we ourselves need to survive. It’s a bit of a Catch-22 scenario, but coal mining and the coal mining industry isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
