Tuesday, March 1, 2016
TJ APES BLOG 21
Mitigation is mainly based on how we can patch up the scars we have made in our earth through our ecological footprints, and the burning of fossil fuels, as well as the rise of CO2 and other deadly gasses that we use on a daily basis. We need to find a new way to power our world, we have allot of things that we could be doing instead of consistently burning fossil fuels to power our earth. We need to stop burning so many fossil fuels, because we are emitting way to much CO2 into our atmosphere. Since we are emitting so much CO2 we are causing climate change, the glaciers are melting because the world is getting too hot, every year is getting hotter than the last. One way that we could help power our world without emitting so much CO2 is through solar energy, it is a renewable recourse and can run on average about 5 to 6 hour a day. So it may not be the most efficient method of energy, but it's sure allot better than burning fossil fuels.We also have other ways, for example, wind energy or, the use hydraulic energy, which is extremely efficient. But we are destroying our world, we need to find another way to power our world, because if we keep burning fossil fuels, and emitting more CO2 we wont be living on this planet for much longer, because once the glaciers disappear we disappear.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Mining Mountaintop Coal Removal
The world is facing major degradation in the form of mountaintop mining in many different locations. Mountaintop removal is the process of removing mountaintops to expose coal seams and disposing of the associated mining overburden in adjacent valleys, also known as "valley fills". Based on 1,200 stream segments observed, there were many disastrous traits found among them. There were increases of minerals in water (zinc, sodium, selenium, and sulfate that negatively impacted fish and other life leading to less diverse species), forests became fragmented, low quality wetlands were created, and the regrowth of trees were slowed due to compacted soils just to name a few things.
Mountain removal is a newer type of coal mining that began in the 1970’s, this type of mining is increasing in popularity and began in Appalachia. In the United states it is used at the Hobet 21 Mine and used primarily in the states of West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. This type of coal mining involves 6 main components. The first component is clearing, this involves the removal of any surface environment, often times vegetation that is destroyed is not even put to any use, “the trees are often not used commercially, but instead are burned or sometimes illegally dumped into valleys,”(“Learn More about Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining." ILoveMountainsorg RSS. ILoveMountains N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2016). The next component is blasting, this involves using explosives to access the seams. Afterwards, digging will occur in order to remove the coal from the earth. After mining, tons of debris, or “overburden” is left behind and is legally dumped into nearby valleys or streams. Coal is then processed by being chemically treated before it can be burned. The last component is reclamation, which has little effect despite federal law, most sites will never revegetate for hundreds of years.
Mountaintop removal has severe environmental impacts and is highly controversial. Mountaintop removal has affected the shape, altitude, and ecology of large areas of the Appalachian coalfields. This mining strategy can increase the amount of minerals and toxins in water sources, forests become fragmented, species are being killed, wetlands are being created unnaturally, and the process generates high amounts of carbon dioxide. Toxins in coal mine polluted streams create a decline in aquatic biodiversity. Environmental groups have brought up law suits against these coal mining companies in more recent years due to these severe impacts. The 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act: said that mining companies had to restore the land to its original shape as best as possible, “Variances could be granted if the coal operator offered specific plans for post-mining development that would benefit the community, such as schools, housing, or shopping centers, but in most cases, the development never materialized.”(Coal Controversy In Appalachia: Feature Articles. “Coal Controversy In Appalachia: Feature Articles. N. p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.). Likewise, the Compensation and Liability Act -requires reporting of hazardous substance releases and inventory of chemicals handled("Federal Environmental Laws That Govern U.S. Mining." Federal Environmental Laws That Govern U.S. Mining. NMA, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2016). This shows that despite laws, degradation still occurs.
The Hobet 21 Mine is based in Boone County, West Virginia. This mine is on a mass scale, it occupies over 6,268 acres in the upper Mud River Watershed. “Local citizen and clean water groups filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia over widespread water pollution from Patriot Coal Corporation’s sprawling Hobet 21 coal mine in Boone County, WV.” Beitman, Adam, Dianne Bady, and Cindy Rank. (Patriot Coal’s Hobet 21 Mine Wiping Out W.Va’s Mud River Watershed. “Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. OVEC. 06 Apr. 2015. Web. 11 Jan. 2016.)
The Hobet 21 Mine is a Mountaintop Coal Removal mine. A Mountaintop Removal Mine is a new type of mining that began in appalachia during the 1970’s, they started this mining technique because it didn’t require as many workers, so the company doesn’t have to give out as much money to the workers.”Mountaintop removal/valley fill is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are removed, exposing the seams of coal. Mountaintop removal can involve removing 500 feet or more of the summit to get at buried seams of coal. The earth from the mountaintop is then dumped in the neighboring valleys.”(Learn More about Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining. ILoveMountainsorg RSS. ILoveMountains. n.d. wEB. 12 jan. 2016.
The Hobet 21 Mine in Boone County, West Virginia is owned by Patriot Coal. Patriot Coal is going to soon be known as “Patriot Coal Operations” due to sure size of the mine.
Specifically in the Hobet 21 Mine based in Boone County, West Virginia is mining coal that is in extremely high demand in the United States, the U.S. Department of Energy estimated that there was an unbelievable 28.5 billion tons of this high-quality coal in the Appalachia region in 1998.By restricting mountaintop mining to small watersheds, this could potentially substantially impact the amount of extraction that takes place in these mountaintop removal mines.
“Coal is a fossil fuel created from the remains of plants that lived and died about 100 to 400 million years ago when parts of the earth were covered with huge swampy forests. Coal is classified as a nonrenewable energy source because it takes millions of years to form.” (“Coal.” Coal. Colorado, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2016). Due to the high demand of coal now, we are digging up more coal now than ever before.”Seams of coal--ranging in thickness from a fraction of an inch to hundreds of feet-may represent hundreds or even thousands of years of plant growth. One important coal seam, the seven-foot thick Pittsburgh seam, may represent 2,000 years of rapid plant growth. One acre of this seam contains about 14,000 tons of coal, enough to supply the electric power needs of 4,500 American homes for one year.”(“Coal.” Coal. Colorado, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2016).
Throughout this project, we learned about how harmful mountaintop mining (coal removal) truly is to the environment. It's on such a massive scale that massive amounts of pollution are hurting not only the environment, but species around the mines as well. There are far better alternatives to mountaintop mining in order to obtain coal, as well as other minerals. The impacts of mountaintop mining need to be brought to the attention of many so we can put an end to this environmental disaster.
Work Cited
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