Longwall Mining and Mothers Milk

Longwall mining and mothers milk. Doesn't that thought just make ya all warm and fuzzy inside? After considering all of the women who are directly, and indirectly effected by longwall mining, it got me to wondering about something. Remember all of those energy employee's bused in for demonstrations backing clean coal? Do you remember how many of them were shiny faced women with big smiles, laughing and in general just having a really swell time? I'm wondering about their thought processes here.

The women who appeared in those shots were, in large part, mothers. Some of them probably breast fed their babies. So I'm just wondering. Did it bother them that they were likely feeding their children mercury (Hg) during those encounters? Have they ever given any thought about how they may have done harm to those children just by feeding them?

Mercury is a by-product of coal. The mining of it, the burning of it and the storing of the ash that is left behind. Think TVA in Tennessee near the first of '09. It is all moving along into the water and into the food chain of all living things, including those women shown in the demonstration pictures.

The humans drink the water. So they get some there. They eat the fish. They get a bunch there. In fact, the larger the fish, the heavier the dose of mercury. They eat vegetables and grains. And, sure enough, they get some there. Let's have a look at the trail there. Sure looks like they're getting a pretty good amount to me. You? Seems we have company. EPA says that 21% of women of child bearing age have mercury above their recommended level.

Now mother has a pretty good amount of mercury on-board, gathered over a lifetime of living with the effects of mobilized carbon which we know carries mercury. Now comes a pregnancy.

The blood from mother now flows in and out of baby. The baby is nourished by what mother eats and drinks. Any possibilities of mercury getting into the baby here?

Baby is born. And development is really in high gear. Neurological development is done primarily in early life. Mercury impairs neurological development. So first, the baby got a good dose from the mother from her blood and from eating what mother ate through blood circulation. Now mother suckles the baby and so continues to pass on the mercury that is continuously coming into her system.

So now let's go back and have a look at those smiling faces. What exactly are they smiling about? Poisoning of the planet? Poisoning of their own children? Poisoning of you and your children? Poisoning of me and my children? Where is the humour here.

Longwall mining and mothers milk. It's really not that funny.

Longwall Earthquake

Having lived in Southern California for a good deal of my life, I know from earthquakes. Most of them are small and harmless. And, for the most part, those who have lived in the area for some length of time pay little heed to them. There are those, however, that crack walls, send fish tanks crashing to the floor, freeways crumbling and apartment houses collapsing like accordions. Think Northridge here.

But, supposing rather than having just the occasional tumbler that does damage of that sort, it were to go on every day? An unrelenting earthquake called longwall mining. And, at the end of it all, there was no FEMA. No, disaster declaration. No assistance from any corner. In fact, the news organizations don't even notice what has happened. No breathless reporter. No screaming headline. Nothing.

Pretty grim, no? Well, this isn't some nightmare dreamed up by RB just to amuse himself between motorcycle trips. Rather, this is everyday reality anyplace there are homes on the surface of the earth and longwall mining beneath. Places like Greene County in the southern most part of Pennsylvania. And, the outcome is just as described.

Earthquake disasters ongoing. Precious few pay any attention. How is it possible that real life drama is upstaged by fake drama? Wonder why that is? Maybe it's because coal industry folks like Energy Citizens are taking up space? And, since they have all of that coal and oil money behind them, they get more attention? Surely RB, you couldn't be suggesting that since those rich folks, read newspaper owners, oil/coal company big wigs and their bought and paid for politicians hang out at cocktail parties together, they could be more interested in money making than actual people?

Well...yes, I am. Politicians in both parties are locked in by the money of their contributor's. And, the fewer and poorer the people there are in the area, the more important that money becomes. Think Baucus here. Yep, earthquake alright. With those most affected also being those with the smallest voice in the shouting match.

Longwall Mining, Jr.

Last week, during NN '09, I was located in Pittsburgh, PA. Beautiful city. Clean, green, and very proud of the strides they have made from the polluted dirty place I visited in the late 60's. We had our convention in the greenest convention center in the country. There was, with reason, lots of talk about all things green and how the G20 would be coming to the city to showcase what can be done in the way of cleaning up a once blighted area.

But, just a short drive down the freeway from all of the green and pride of all things shiny, was the exact opposite of what was to be found in the city. All over Greene County disaster is being wrought by Consol Energy. The only thing I can think of to compare it to is cancer. It travels under the surface. Unseen. Destroying everything it comes near.

The name of this cancer is longwall mining. It travels 400'-600' under the surface of the land eating at everything in it's path. And everywhere it travels, under homes, near dams, and headwaters for streams, it leaves behind disaster.

Peoples homes splintering and cracking. And, finally crumbling into a pile of rubble. Dams cracking to the point of having to be dismantled and the water behind lost. Leaving the fish flopping on the waterless ground left behind. Streams drying up, leaving only dry, cracked beds behind. With no water for farm animals and their minders.

Of course the mining company Consol, in this case, denies any culpability and any need to do more than patch up kind of remediation. They say that they will mitigate any damages done to homes. But those who have lost their homes to this insidious disease know the reality of those claims.

What a difference a couple of hours can make. On the one hand a model for a new and clean environment. On the other complete devastation. Some light on the subject would be most welcome, I am sure, to those who make their homes in Greene County. And, for that matter, anyplace else where longwall mining is occurring. Or, will occur.

Smiling Faces

Remember all of those smiling faces at the oil/gas/coal rally down in Houston the other day? Remember how they were smiling and laughing like they were having the time of their life? Well, they were. It was like a company picnic. Most of those folks were employees of the energy companies mentioned above. So, if you're getting paid to ride a bus to a picnic and wave a sign that shows you to be a complete moron, what the hell. You got paid.

Did you also notice that there were no rough necks? Or, miners? Pretty obvious there. Who in the hell wants some ill dressed, dirty faced, profane kinda guy/woman messing up there pretty picture.

Just a couple of thoughts about all of that. First, as concerns mining. There are 27 deaths per 100,000 workers per year in that industry. That would be roughly nine (9) times higher than US industry as a whole. That would sure as hell make you smile. No?

How about, lots of those folks live in areas where they can hunt and fish and live the good life. Well, lets see here, fully one quarter of the fish tested in 291 streams had mercury levels above the safety levels set by EPA. That'll get your smiley faces splashed all over, won't it? Everybody likes feeding their families high levels of mercury, don't they?

Hmmmmm. Where is the connection RB? Well by golly, says here that emissions from coal fired plants are the largest source of mercury contamination in the United States. Boy, Howdy. No wonder those folks were all smiles.

One more little add on here. A report out in the past couple of days says that aerosols have increased in the stratosphere in the past decade. They're getting a big boost from coal burning. Especially in China.

Perhaps, I should change that title to Lying Faces.

Longwall Mining

Most of us in this country take for granted that we can turn on our tap at the sink and get a glass of water. But, suppose you turned on the tap and didn't get anything. Further, suppose that the water came from your own well. What, specifically, would you do?

That isn't just an exercise question. It is happening in many states in the country and no one is even talking about it. Why? Because those causing water to disappear and homes to crumble are very large coal mining companies. They have a lot of money. They are very well connected. Read that as having politicians bought and paid for.

So, what would you do? If you had livestock would you sell them off? Would you go to town to get bottled water? For three and a half (3 1/2) years? It has happened that way. It is happening. And, as long as longwall mining is allowed to continue, it will happen again and again.

Just a suggestion here. Google longwall mining. Have a look at some of the photo's that are available. Contact citizenscoalcouncil.org. Get a little information. Then be prepared to be entirely pissed at what you see and hear. Mining companies like the dark (not just a pun) because the light of day, shone down on their dirty and murderous work, would do for their business what it has done for so many in the minefield. Namely, it would kill them.

One could point at mountain top destruction as the obvious sign of all that is wrong with coal mining. And, of course they would entirely correct in doing so. But, longwall mining is what is not obvious. You can't tell from above the mining itself that there is anything out of the ordinary going on.

What you need here is a rear view mirror. Look back at where the mining has taken place. See any flowing streams? No. Why, you might ask? Well lets see here. If you dig down 400-600 feet, then start digging horizontal to the plane of the ground above and don't shore up the tunnel behind you, what is going to happen? Of course, the ground behind will fall. How much? Let's see here. The machine that does the mining is about 4"-6" high. That means that you have a 4"-6" hole behind you wherever you do the longwall mining. If you don't shore up the hole, at some point the ground will sink 4"-6". Hmmmmmm. If you were to say, dig beneath or near to a stream, and the ground sinks, what might the obvious be? The water disappears.

At this point, the mining company would likely say that it really hasn't disappeared, but gone deeper and is coming up elsewhere. But, suppose, going back to the top of this post, that all of a sudden your water was gone? It may indeed be coming up elsewhere, but how in the hell does that help you? If your animals no longer have water to drink. And, your home, which has been using that water for drinking, bathing, washing clothes, you know the regular everyday stuff, is now dry. No water. It may be deeper and coming up elsewhere, but again the same question.

This little problem is not singular, nor isolated. It is common place and happening to a lot of people in the coalfield. Anyplace they are using longwall mining, there is on-going housing and water destruction.

It took only a couple of hours to get me started down the path that will cure my personal ignorance of the the destruction being done in the name of coal. Longwall mining is an unmitigated disaster. And, it is neither being talked about, nor written about at this moment. Through this diary, and hopefully others, Grist(?) this is about to change.

Screamers and Health Care

So here we are at the Congressional break, all of us discussing our ideas of health care, how our idea is the best and showing how it should be implemented. WAKE UP

Oh...shit...dreaming again.

Well then, lets have a look at how it's really going. The mouthpieces of the Republican Party are inciting riot. That of course would be Dobbs, Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly, WaPo and the WSJ, just to name a few. Then we have the knuckle draggers who listen to them, mostly middle aged white folks who appear to be on Medicare.

Hmmmm. Why would folks on Medicare be protesting government run medical insurance ideas? Surely they know that Medicare is a government run operation? That without it most of them would be without health care of any sort?

Maybe its not healthcare we're talking about? Maybe they just don't like the color of the guy in the White House? Oh for shit sake. This couldn't possibly be racist based...could it? Somebody wailing that they "want their Amerika back" makes me believe that maybe it is somehow connected. You remember that Amerika. The one run by Dick "Dick" Cheney. Spying on Quakers. The Unitary President. Rendition. Torture. Yes, I think that's the one.

So, health care really isn't what this is all about. They're just pissed because all of those other people in the country voted in a landslide to shitcan their guy and vote in some B.L.A.C.K. guy...who isn't really a citizen. He's a Kenyan. And, they have a piss poor copy of a Australian birth certificate with badly done Kenyan stuff on it, from before Kenya was a country to prove it.

It looks to me like what we have is a bunch of people being carted about by the coal and oil folks to prevent any rational discussion by screaming and shouting and threatening to kill those who don't believe the cockamamie shit they believe.

News Flash. Those of us on the Left, and specifically those of us who are way, way, way over to the Left, don't give a shit about your silly assed beliefs. We know them to be based entirely upon hatred and bias toward any who aren't directly in line with your idiotic beliefs. Or, more to the point, racists and bigots.

And, just for you right wing kristians out there. If Jesus was here, he'd be a Democrat.