Coal and Mortality in Appalachia and Making History

Comment: Mt Top Removal should never been allowed in any state but my home state of Virginia has ruin people lives for the profit of coal corporations, this needs to stop now! However, open pit uranium mining will ruin the rest of our lovely state! The state of Virginia needs to stop bowing down to corporations and take care of her citizens. Nuke and Coal Corp are going to ruin our state, ruin our homes, ruin our land, ruin our air, and make our families sick! Ban uranium mining and Mt. Top Removal!


Published by danawv, June 22nd, 2009

This is a historic week in the coalfields of Appalachia. A historic study quantifying the cost of coal in the form of human lives has come out (see below), and an historic action will take place in Coal River Valley on Tuesday.

And for the first time in over a generation we have legislation to end mountaintop removal proposed in both chambers of Congress and a hearing scheduled in the Senate. THURSDAY,

JUNE 25, 2009 3:30 p.m. Room 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building there will be a hearing to discuss MTR’s impacts on water — please come, but if you can’t, invite your Senator to attend by dialing (202) 224-3121 or email them to come out to the hearing.

And in case you’re still not sure how you feel about coal — a new study recently released has found that coal lowers life expectancy — not a surprise to those living in coalfield communities. This study assigns a monetary value to the human life lost and finds that coal comes up $34 billion short each year. Please note that carbon capture and sequestration does NOT prevent this loss of human life. The estimated number of lives lost each year to destructive coal practices is 1,736 and 2,889 people. Hendryx and Ahern measure that these human beings are collectively worth about $42 billion. The coal industry contributes $8 billion in revenue.

Assigning a monetary value to a human life is a cruel bottom line, but the premature death of thousands of good people — in the Appalachian region alone — each year is crueler still. This study illustrates this tragic loss of human life for “cheap” energy in a way that coal companies and governments understand — cold hard cash.

One hopes that this study will wake our government up, that officials will realize human lives are worth even more than money, and the swift transition to a healthy, sustainable economy begins as soon as possible. More info on the study after the jump.

Coal’s costs outweigh benefits, WVU study finds

By Ken Ward Jr.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Coal mining costs Appalachians five times more in early deaths as the industry provides to the region in jobs, taxes and other economic benefits, according to a groundbreaking new study co-authored by a West Virginia University researcher.

In the latest in a series of papers, WVU researcher Michael Hendryx questions the idea that coal is good for West Virginia and other Appalachian communities, and recommends that political leaders consider other alternatives for improving the region’s economy and quality of life.

“Coal-mining economies are not strong economies,” Hendryx said in an interview last week. “[Coalfield communities] are weaker than the rest of the state, weaker than the rest of the region, and weaker than the rest of the nation.”

Writing with co-author Melissa Ahern of Washington State University, Hendryx reports that the coal industry generates a little more than $8 billion a year in economic benefits for the Appalachian region.

But, Hendryx and Ahern put the value of premature deaths attributable to the mining industry across the Appalachian coalfields at — by their most conservative estimate — $42 billion.

“The human cost of the Appalachian coal mining economy outweighs its economic benefits,” they wrote.

http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/06/22/coal-and-mortality-in-appalachia-and-making-history/