How Does Coal Affect Society

1 What is coal? Coal is a substance we consider today a fossil fuel, created from all the dead plants millions of years ago. Coal is formed from prehistoric plants that when they die are not able to release the energy they built up from photosynthesis Typically the plants had fallen into large swamps and bogs, and then over time the dead plants lying on the bottom of the swamps and bogs were slowly covered with other dead plants and sediment build-up. Once buried the plants were subjected to high amounts of pressure and temperatures, which over long periods of time it becomes peat then eventually creates coal. We refer to coal as a “fossil fuel” today because it is created from prehistoric plants and the coal we have today has been millions of years since it was in plant form. Today we coal is still being created we just don’t fully recognize it because how long the process actually takes.

Coal: A Human History was written by Barbara Freese to focus on the history of coal and how mankind has used it as part of their lifestyle. Ever since the times when early nomads used the slash-and-burn method, coal has been around acting as jewelry for the Romans and as fuel for peasants and the noble class in Britain. Coal was in such high demand that many inventions were utilized for the convenience of retrieving it from intolerable conditions such as vacuums and the construction of more efficient underground tunnels. The book gives insight of how this small stone has been so vital to humans that they were able to adapt to the ways coal best functions.

Coal discovery dates to the 1300s with the Hopi Natives. This would prove significant some five hundred years later when coal became the predominant source of power in the mid to late 1800s. This would prove even more significant when the Government started surveying the landscape for the best route for the Transcontinental Railroad in 1853. Upon completion of the research, one thing the scouts made clear was the presence of coal in Wyoming and some of the western states. To run supplies from the eastern states to the west they needed the presence of coal to be close and readily available for the coal fueled trains. This played a major role in the industrial revolution the United States was about the experience.

Yes, there were tons of benefits that came out of the phasing out but there are also many disadvantages. Coal was one of the easy stable resources to get a hold of. There was many of it. Even though it is non-renewable it was very cheap. Without that to use Ontario needs more expensive resources to generate the tons of energy we use daily. (http://www.coaleducation.org/q&a/10_reasons_why_coal.htm)

The energy we get from coal today comes from the energy that plants absorbed from the sun millions of years ago. When an area is to be mined, topsoil and subsoil are removed from the rock and so is another material, call overburden, to expose the bed of coal. All living plants give solar energy through photosynthesis. When plants die the energy gets out as the plants decay. The whole decaying process gets interrupted which prevents the release of the stored solar energy, then the energy stays locked in the coal. The plant material gets subjected to high temperatures and pressures which causes physical and chemical changes in the vegetation, transforming it into peat and then into coal. The formation of peat is the first step in the geological formation of fossil fuels such as coal. Peat plants is not only the first step for formation but they also capture CO2 itself. There are many effect to the environment when it comes to coal; an example is AMD which stands for Acid mine drainage; it includes the outflow of acidic water from coal mines or metal mines. Mines exposed rocks containing pyrite which reacts to water and air to form acid and dissolved iron and can easily wash into rivers and streams. Coal is a huge impact when it comes to hurting our

Coal has been around for 250 million years, but only has been used since the 1800’s first by trains and now for energy all around the world and many other things that people couldn't think of! Coal is a combustible sedimentary organic rock which is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It is formed from vegetation which has been consolidated between two other rock strata and altered by the combined effects of pressure and heat over millions of years to form coal seams. There are over 174,000 jobs in the U.S associated with coal and 83,000 of them are mining jobs, Coal miners have found many ways to extract coal from the ground which includes, surface mining, longwall mining, room and pillar mining, and underground mining. “Surface

The article, “Coal and the Environment”, provides the readers will and understanding of how coal works and also how it is dangerous to our environment. Coal on its own is not dangerous to the environment but once the coal is burned, then pollutants are released into the air causing for less clean air. The government has taken a stand on the industries polluting the air we breathe in everyday with the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. These two acts put restrictions on industries that allow for safer and cleaner air.

Coal: A Human History was written by Barbara Freese to focus on the history of coal and how mankind has used it as part of their lifestyle. Ever since the times when early nomads used the slash-and-burn method, coal has been around acting as jewelry for the Romans and as fuel for peasants and the noble class in Britain. Coal was in such high demand that many inventions were utilized for the convenience of retrieving it from intolerable conditions such as vacuums and the construction of more efficient underground tunnels. The book gives insight of how this small stone has been so vital to humans that they were able to adapt to the ways coal best functions.

Coal companies are struggling trying to clean up rivers and mountains. With a 1 billion bill they needed to try to get enough money to pay them. In my opinion they need to have a fund that people could put money in their box to help pay their debts off. Not everyone can work enough to have that much money to pay those kinds of debts off.

What is Pollution? Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can be in forms of chemical substances, such as heat noise or light. What are pollutants? A pollutant is a substance that pollutes something, especially water or the atmosphere. How is coal related to pollution? Coal is related to pollution in two ways . . . the first one is by CO2 emissions that absorb ultraviolet rays from the sun which causes temperatures to rise, the second one is causing pollution because when it’s being mined it’s destroying public land and mountains. The CO2 emissions are caused by the chemicals in the coal. Coal is made up of mostly Carbon but also has many traces of Sulfur, Nitrogen, Hydrogen,

Coal is a dirty industry from beginning to end, but until recently the public knew very little of how the coal cycle ends -- with millions of tons of toxic coal ash waste produced each year. Coal ash can cause many health problems for people who are exposed to it, and it can also damage our environment.The EPA has been very lenient with coal ash reuse and storage, and due to that leniency, many communities were and still are being negatively affected. Coal ash is not only negatively affecting North Carolina and the United States, it’s negatively affecting Earth in general. Coal ash is a global problem, and the EPA should be more strict with companies that reuse or store coal ash. As we deal with decades of coal ash waste, ultimately, we must stop burning coal to make power and find better ways to efficiently create electricity without making global warming worse.

I think that coal mining should continue. Coal mining can be a dangerous job, but that doesn't mean we should stop using . If we stop using coal we would have to find something else to use for electricity. Speaking of electricity we wouldn't have that much if we stop using coal.

With that being said here are some environmental impacts of coal you may not know about. The air pollutants cause acid rain, smog ,respiratory illnesses, cancers and toxins in the environment. Coal miners can get respiratory illnesses from the coal dust while mining. If an abandoned coal mine catches fire it puts tons of mercury into the atmosphere, this happens every year and is responsible for three percent of carbon dioxide emissions globally. The second largest contributor to

It also kills many more jobs besides just coal mining. It kills jobs such as the steel industry, all of the different railroad transport companies, and many other high paying jobs. In the past few years there has been over one point three million jobs killed by the government that consisted of coal mines. Of that one point three million, five hundred thousand of them were in the steel industry. That means that it will make it tougher to make cars and trucks. Everyone relies on their car or truck for some reason, does not matter if it is for driving to work or pulling their camper. After all you can see that the one type of company being killed and shut down comes back around and bites you later. It is not only problem in the United States, it is also hurting other country’s. China has had to spend one hundred billion dollars for unemployment relief. Twenty percent of the unemployment is in the coal and steel related

For many centuries coal has been used to generate energy, steel production, cement manufacturing and liquid fuel (Uses of Coal, n.d.). To access the coal, humans mine areas that have a big resource of the rock. Studies have shown the decrease of coal mining in the economy, the people not agreeing with their land being used due to the culture of the land that the coal is on and the harmful effects that coal mining causes to the environment.