We humans are a short sighted bunch. Whether its cheeseburger's and flavored sugar water, the last tree on Easter Island, or the very life of the planet, we live for the most part, strictly in the moment. If we could just raise our heads from the immediate and contemplate the horizon for just a few moments, our destructive behavior would become clear and common sense would prevail.
Therein lies the problem. First one must raise the head toward the horizon. If we are focused on the task at hand, and that task is say, earning a living to support one's family, raising the head becomes problematic for many of us.
Suppose that the job one has is the only kind available in the area in which one dwells? That due to geography, education, or other constraints, job prospects are diminishingly small? Mix with this some portion of fear. Not just of losing one's means of supporting the family, but the fear of not being of utility to society. And, the general fear of humankind of the unknown.
Now let us add the company. Let's say it's a longwall coal mining company. If they tell us that they are on our side, that we matter to them, that our job matters to them, that this really is one of the few jobs available to support one's family, does that encourage one to stay a little more focused? Of course.
Is it possible that, given the above, we might not pay so much attention to the fact that somewhere down the road the coal will all be mined and the job will also end? Could we skip over the fact that there are fewer and fewer of these type jobs due to advances in technology? That the company, with a huge capital investment in the enterprise, might exaggerate some on our value to them? How valuable they are to us?
Let's raise our head's for a minute here. The enterprise is about profit. It is not about jobs, or people. Since technology eliminates jobs, why would the company add it if jobs were the important issue? We matter only to the extent that we will risk our lives to accomplish the goal of the enterprise. Profit. If the job can be eliminated, there is increased profit. Given that, our job will end as quickly as they can manage.
Hopefully, we can, after a quick glimpse of the horizon, refocus. Only now, rather than focusing on where we are told to focus, we can begin to focus where it is most needed. The future of our children, theirs and many, many more are at stake.
The coal companies are lying to us all. Climate Change is real. It is killing us. Coal from it's discovery onward is responsible for the largest part of that act. What is important is profit. They are lying about jobs.
2 comments:
You are certainly right it is not about jobs, even if the coal companies try to paint it that way when it suits their purpose (like when some new environmental regulation is proposed). If it WERE about jobs, about employing miners, they would scrap the longwall machines right now and put more men and women back to work doing room and pillar mining. Not only would it employ many times more people in the coalfields than now are employed, it would prevent subsidence and all of the associated impacts to wetlands, streams, aquifers, historic sites, farmland, homes, and businesses. Sounds like win-win to me. But "No!" say the coal companies - "We will loose all of the profit from the coal left in the pillars". Well, who said anything about leaving coal in place? I'm sure they could hire a bunch of bright engineers who could design synthetic supports, so that most, if not all, of the coal could still be taken out. They just haven't had the incentive to do that yet. Heck, the R&D, design, and construction of those new-fangled supports would add even MORE jobs into the mix! But hey, don't get too carried away here - after all, it's really NOT about jobs, is it? It's all about profits. And adding more coal miners, preventing environmental destruction, and designing and building new technologies doesn't increase profits. And so, if they keep the focus on corporate profits, they can keep selling us "cheap" coal.
Just to be clear - I am in no way advocating the continued mining of coal, whether by room-and-pillar method or any other. I believe the use of coal and other fossil fuels must end as quickly as possible. I only propose use of room-and-pillar as a counterargument to the industry's knee-jerk response to any suggestion that scaling back on longwall or MTR would be devestating to local employment. We all know that the industry is not likely to switch back to room-and-pillar mining.
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