20 February 2006

65 Coal Miners At Risk In Mexico

There are sixty-five coal miner in Mexico who are trapped after a mine accident and at grave risk of death.

Why should we care? Coal kills. It is a dangerous way to get energy. Most of the risk is in the air pollution it generates and in the contamination its use causes, but coal mining is also a deadly business that kills large numbers of people each year. Coal kills far more people per amount of energy generated, than any other fuel used to generate electricity. In particular, coal kills far, far more people than nuclear power ever has, on a regular basis.

Per unit of energy generated, for each life lost due to nuclear power, natural gas results in 2 lost lives, oil results in 32 lost lives and coal results in 37 lost lives.

Danger to human life is a reason to favor fuels like renewable energy, natural gas and nuclear power, over the dominant source of electrical generation right now, which is coal.

No comments: