China and the Use of Coal: An Examination

It produces a great deal of our electricity; however, we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the implications. As Goodell notes on the first page, “We love our hamburgers, but we’ve never seen the inside of a slaughterhouse.” Isn’t that the truth? When we fuel up our cars, we don’t think (much) about the ramifications of our oil dependence. When we flip a light switch, we do not associate that with the coal-driven mountaintop removals in West Virginia. In this book, “BIG COAL” Jeff describes Goodell thrusts those associations right in your face. He covers the history of the industry, tells the stories of the people in and around the business, and while most of the book is based on U.S.-happenings, he does spend a chapter in China. We would imagine the coal industry was none too pleased with Big Coal because it paints a really ugly picture of the industry. Goodell contrasts the coal industry with the individuals whose lives have been negatively impacted by coal in one way or another. He details corruption and politics that allowed the industry to delay implementation of pollution control equipment. And on a big picture level, he argues that continued usage of coal poses a serious threat to the earth’s

Yancoal is a competitive coal exporter in Asian markets. In their vision, strong demand of coal in developing countries can elevate amount of production for company in the future. For instance, China has a huge coal reserves. Proportion of coal in China's primary energy consumption is as high as 70%, which means it is twice as much as the global average. Due to rapidly development of heavy industry and resource price rising, China's coal production

The coal industry has been struggling. The fall in prices which was initially thought to be temporary has persisted, and due to a similar over-production of supply, coal continues to decrease in value. Years of buildup in the mining capacity have forced global coal prices to tumble and there’s little hope that the industry will be back firmly to its knees. Slower growth in world coal demand, lower international coal prices, and higher coal output in other coal-exporting countries have all led to a decline in U.S. coal exports. Lower mining costs, cheaper transportation costs, and favorable exchange rates will continue to provide an advantage to mines in other major coal-exporting countries compared with U.S. producers. One of the largest economies in the world, China, has experienced decrease in demand for coal. There is just too much of an over-supply going on internationally in the year 2015. The EIA expects a 7% decrease in total coal consumption in 2015. As such, coal production is expected to decrease in all coal-producing

In the last century, the Great Smog of 1952 in London killed over 12,000 people in total in that year (Tracton, 2012, para.2). The high-speed development of economy caused the air pollution in someway. The same thing is happening in China now. Some people may say that China is on the same old road that the Great Britain was on. Hu, Zhang & Lin (2014), professors at universities in China, claim that while China’s economy has been developing at a high speed since the Reform and Opening in 1978, China is also facing the dilemma, which is the increasing conflict between economic development, energy and environment (p.38). The results of their investigation show that China’s rapid economic growth has facilitated enormous expansion in energy

In the city of Los Angeles, it is rather easy to turn on the light or charge a laptop. I never thought much about where this energy and electricity come from, because they can all come from a simple action like flipping a switch. These little movements became my daily habits, as I need the light and the charger. Coal is an important supply for fuel, power generation and steel production. Everything it fabricates goes into our daily life— big and small. The charger and light are small examples. Globalization is the big example. Globalizing forces like modern transportation and transaction technology allow the coal

Controlling coal consumption is a possible option to prevent and reduce pollution as well as adverse health risks in China. According to Kanada et al. consumption of coal and sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions in China are double that of the rest the world (2013). There is a significant correlation between SO2, which is the waste emitted from burning coal and daily mortality in China (Xu, Gao, Gao & Chen (2010). Based on a cost-benefit analysis for the implementation of air pollution prevention strategies in China, the elimination of small

China as the fastest growing economy worldwide, is currently facing a challenging time to meet the energy demand of their population (Dalpino, 2005, p. 46). The heavily populated Eastern region is often subject to electricity outages (Sternfeld, 2010, p. 4), as the used electricity is mainly generated in the less densely populated West, a project supported by the west-east electricity transfer project (Oaks, 2004, p. 154). In the past, China has been mainly relying on their coal resources in order to meet this demand. The domination of coal consumption rose from the need of energy in a large country with a relatively low qualitative supply of natural gas and oil and the rather late development of these sources (Kang Z. , 2014).

Coal has been driving the world’s energy needs since the Roman Empire, however it is not without repercussions. Coal is a dirty energy source that is dangerous to acquire and environmentally devastating when used. It has caused numerous health issues in miners, contaminated local water supplies, and is responsible for the depletion of the ozone. Although coal is a widely used energy source, the world should invest in finding alternative and more efficient energy sources.

Every country has to decide what type of energy it wants to use in order to generate the power that is needed for the industrialization and for use by the citizens of the country. There are many factors that impact that decision. Each energy source has an impact physically, politically and economically on the given country. These conditions are what helps to sway the decision of the political leaders to pick which of the sources they want to use. Some of different resources that a country can use are coal (non-renewable), nuclear energy (non-renewable), natural gas (non-renewable), oil (non- renewable), and hydroelectricity (renewable), and solar energy (renewable). Most of these resources are being used by countries all around the world. The decision as to how best to power their country is based on many factors. China is a perfect example of how different factors can affect the decisions.

For so many years, energy has been a need for people everywhere. What has become of the world today is due to the revolution in energy use. There are two types of energy sources-renewables and non-renewables. Examples of renewables are water wind and solar power. Renewables can be recovered and used again while non-renewables don't have the ability to be used again or more than once. Coal is a non-renewable but a great type of fossil fuel because it’s a reliable source of electricity which is necessary for steelmaking. It is the most plentiful fuel of all the fossil fuels. Coal has been used for thousands of years archaeologists discovered that coal was used even in the second and third centuries by the Romans. Solar power is a renewable source since it’s powered by the sun. It can be converted into other forms for example both heat and electricity can come directly from the sun. The sun’s power has been used for centuries to heat up our homes, water (to drink and bathe), and our food as well. Both energy sources-coal and solar-are quite reliable resources, and are used widely. As worldwide energy sources, coal and solar power share similarities and differences when it comes to having enormous impacts on the environment the world's economic status within how much money we profit from them and human health- such as increased lung cancer rates.

The same is the matter with the Northeast Asian countries, particularly China, Japan and South Korea. The mentioned countries have been persistently endeavoring to gain financial escalation via their manufacturing sectors, which can be said to be those industries that demand most energy. Despite the fact that these Northeast Asian countries have developed knowledge-based industries as well, yet for the most part they depend on

Now a days, there is a war of economic war in which every country played their economic part to want to be a leader or powerful, in this situation many industries is established and several advancements are held, but no one realized the result of world-wide pollution that affects the natural environment of the world. In Australia, the debate is that the most of the economist or tax experts want the carbon tax to all the industries so that those industries who doesn’t care the environment move to those countries where such taxes are not imposed (such as China). China has a very strong economic power in the world, but china encouraged the entire industrialist to establish their industries in their country.

With approximately 25 million tonnes of steel making coal produced in 2013, Teck Coal Limited is the largest producer of steelmaking (coking) coal in North America and the second largest exporter of steelmaking coal with approximately 95% of the coal produced being exported to various countries in Asia, Europe and South America. China, Japan & Korea form the bulk of the countries who import steelmaking coal from Teck Coal Limited (Teck Resources Limited, 2013). Figure 1 below shows a breakdown of the world coal reserves according to the type of coal and the potential use.

Energy, especially electricity, is important for economic development. Electricity plays an important role toward economic growth as it is essential in using pieces of equipment that are used in the manufacturing processes of various products (ESMAP 8). The increasing population and expanding economy contribute to the increase in the demand for electricity. Especially in summer, there are many people would like to stay at home with the air conditioning on rather than having activities outdoors. Currently, China is the major consumer of electricity because of the huge population and industrial demand. However, the electricity produced in this country is not enough to supply its needs (Global Energy). The economic progress could not pursue if there is insufficient amount of energy that any country could use.

In India, 80% of mining is done in coal and the rest balance 20% is done in various metals and other raw materials such as gold, iron, lead, copper, zinc and uranium. Coal has been a major contributor in ensuring energy security during the last century. But it is not a renewable energy resource. Coal is the most important and abundant fossil fuel in India and accounts for approximately 55% of India 's total energy need. India 's industrial heritage was based upon indigenous coal, largely mined in the eastern and the central regions of the country. Coal has been recognized as the single most important source of energy for electricity generation in India. About 75% of the total coal produced is consumed in the power sector. In addition, several industries like steel, cement, paper, fertilizers, chemicals and thousands of medium and small scale industries are dependent on coal for their energy requirements. In the transport sector, the energy requirement for electric traction is still dependent on coal converted into electric power.