Coal Use Grows Despite Warming Worries

By ELAINE KURTENBACH, AP Business Writer

Coal workers load up a truck with coal in Jungar Qi, a bleak boomtown, nestled in the sand-sculpted ravines of Inner Mongolia, China, Wednesday, May 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel)

(AP) -- Almost nonstop, gargantuan 145-ton trucks rumble through China's biggest open-pit coal mine, sending up clouds of soot as they dump their loads into mechanized sorters.

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Posted by Paul Buddery 11/02/07 23:51

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The deaths of Chinese miners are most regrettable, but coal mining does not have to take such a toll of human life, it is quite possible to mine coal efficiently without killing or seriously harming anyone. For many coal workers in the world, the drive to work is potentially more hazardous than being at work. If the will was there, China could rapidly and significantly reduce its death toll.

The economic growth is great news. This is the proven way to lift people out of poverty. CO2 emissions keep rising but global temperatures stopped rising 9 years ago and we are no warmer today than in the 1930s, so let's stop worrying about a non-problem and deal with real issues such as poverty, disease and access to fresh water.