Why has the world started to mine coal again?

Metal Zealot@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 322 points –

With climate change looming, it seems so completely backwards to go back to using it again.

Is it coal miners pushing to keep their jobs? Fear of nuclear power? Is purely politically motivated, or are there genuinely people who believe coal is clean?

Edit, I will admit I was ignorant to the usage of coal nowadays.

Now I'm more depressed than when I posted this

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  • Fukushima
  • Chernobyl
  • 3-Mile Island to name a few

Yes yes, we know people don't understand statistics.

I'm looking forward to seeing your Instagram snaps once you move back to pripyat permanently. Statistics never tell the full story.

Ah yes, the clusterfuck of the 20th century is the lode stone

Also Pripyat isn't that bad.

If you're referring to the nukes-are-statistically-safe argument, then to be fair, you also have to take into account the scale of their failures.

Right it would be something involving number of people harmed, for number of joules or watt-hours of energy produced. How much injury, death, etc is there on a per-unit basis. That would be how you'd get a probability of harm. Then you could compare it numerically with other forms of energy to see which is the safest, statistically speaking.