Coal Energy Effects

The world in the past and today still depends on energy for its survival. Numerous forms of energies has been introduced with time and made into use for various purposes. Out of many sources of energy, one of the most important sources of energy is Coal. Coal was used as the source of heat and light first by Chinese about 3000 years ago and later discovered by French explorers on the Illinois River in 1679(Kentucky Coal Education, n.d.). Out of many natural resources used from the past coal is one of the most widely used forms of fossil fuel which is still widely used today. Coal is used as a fuel to generate electricity and as of today 40% of the world’s electricity is fuelled by coal (World Coal Institute, n.d.), used as fuel for railways,

According to the research done by Greenpeace International, majority of the coal in the world is obtained from underground coal extractions. Although this type of coal extraction does not carry intensive negative impact on the environment as the surface mining, however it has many issues associated with it. As the name suggests, in this type of extraction huge holes are made into the ground with huge machineries and requires huge labour and sophisticated machines. There are heath related issues with the workers working underground without ample and clean air leading to respiratory diseases, eyesight problems due to dusts and so on. Many a times there are risks that the underground mine may collapse resulting to the loss of the workers’ lives and financial loss. As coal catches fire very easily, there are always risks that fire may breakout in the mine. With huge underground coal mining, in the process of extraction unwanted waste and rocks are brought up the surface polluting the environment. The lands above the mines are made loose and unstable and vulnerable to sink with disturbance such as earthquake. The water table beneath the earth’s surface are also contaminated by the underground coal mining leading to change in its flow. There is also emission of harmful gases in to the

Although, coals are energy concentrated there are many negative impacts. As coal as mostly used for burning, its produces many harmful gases into the air such as Carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and so on which pollutes the air making it unsafe and also adding to global climate change. Burning of fossil fuel such as coal is responsible for 65 % of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (Fossil Fuel, n.d). Burning of coal is also responsible for acid rain when large amount of coal are burned as it produces sulphuric acid and other toxic gases. Transportation of coal also affects the environment with noise pollution, destruction to vegetation for road and railways for vehicles and trains. It also add to the global climate