On Monday a mine explosion killed six, just days after a similar explosion killed 28. The same day, an explosion at the Xingyu Group Iron Works killed four more, bringing the total death toll to the day to twenty. Also on Monday, workers discovered 36 bodies out of 83 miners trapped on Friday. These deaths highlight the tremendous danger involved in coal mining, as well as the failure on the part of China to address these concerns. Coal miners are a historically underrepresented group in China, and these tragic accidents are especially poignant considering how easily they could be avoided. The large body of data concerning mining indicates that effective precautions, as exist in Australia, can virtually eliminate mining casualties. Whether and how long it takes China to move in this direction has yet to be seen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/world/asia/china-industrial-accidents-kill-10.html?_r=0
The track record of the US coal mining industry is pretty black, too. Coal is nasty from mine to the mercury and radiation dumped downwind even from “clean” power plants that use coal cleaned of most of its sulfur.
Despite the problems with coal mining on a whole, will the recent events have any affect in making the coal mining industry safer from similar explosions? Also, will the recent explosions help facilitate a movement towards green energy?