CHINAMERICACOAL ─ Life shouldn't be this way

Re-reported in brief with comment by Carolyn Bennett
A thousand and more safety violations preceded this week’s Massey mine explosion that killed 25 West Virginia miners. Last month alone the Massey Energy Mine received 50 citations. [Update: By the weekend, 29 miners had been confirmed dead.]

As U.S. President Barack Obama supports patently unsafe nuclear power for war and energy, he also supports patently unsafe “safe” mining. Taking into account processes and consequences, safety is impossible in nuclear power and in coal mining.

In China last week, 9 miners died and 29 are still trapped after floods came to a coalmine in Shanxi Province. Rescuers on Monday pulled 115 miners from the mine alive. These miners had been trapped for more than a week.

To say we are sorry fails miserably to grasp the depth of human pain. To spout religious nonsense in the face of repeated workplace, environmental and community disasters ─ disasters preventable by good governance ─ as President Obama did today is more than immoral. It is an insult to ─ and criminal in its dismissal of ─ human beings and the inherent value of their lives.

Drawing attention to the national scandal of mountaintop removal mining and grave health consequences of coal mining and coal-fired plants ─ and the potentially catastrophic consequences of climate destabilization trigged by CO2 emissions ─ the Coal Free Future Project has launched a 2010 spring/summer 20-state tour with performances of ‘Welcome to the Saudi Arabia of Coal.’ This is a multimedia production and follow-up workshops with nonprofit citizen groups, environmental and student organizations on coal, mountaintop removal, climate change and clean energy options. http://coalfreefutureproject.org/

Sources
“Massey Energy Mine Cited for 1,300+ Safety Violations in Years Leading up to Deadly Explosion,” April 7, 2010, http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/7/massey_energy_mine_cited_for_1
“Death toll rises to 9 in N China coal mine flood as rescue efforts continue,” Xinhua News Agency, April 7, 2010, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-04/07/c_13241390.htm

Also note: On CounterSpin Friday, April 9, 2010, [lead in]: “As we record this show, efforts continue to rescue 4 miners believed still trapped by the April 5 explosion that killed 25 in West Virginia, and media are tracking the story. However, if by ‘accident’ we mean something unpredictable and that substantive steps are taken to avoid, is it time for reporters to find a new word to describe such disasters? We talk with journalist Jeff Biggers, author of Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland.” Jeremy Scahill on Iraq killings, Jeff Biggers on coal mining (4/9/10-4/15/10), http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=5