Coal is not clean. Coal kills. No matter how many commercials for clean coal appear on the television, radio, billboard sign, or internet, coal kills. No matter how many green fields, blue skies, wind turbine's or rosy cheeked children they parade through the scene, coal kills. Everyone knows that. It kills those who do the mining. It kills fish. It kills trees and bushes. And, it is choking the life out of our planet.
The CEO's of the longwall mining companies know that what they are doing is destroying entire ecosystems. Lakes vanished. Creeks and streams that disappear, with fish left gasping for breath and flopping in the sun. Farms left suddenly without water for the animals that are entirely dependent upon it's existence.
These same folks are entirely aware that the product they deal in is not clean. They know that it is killing us all. They certainly will not admit it. That would place them in the category of murderers. So they continue the game that was played by the cigarette manufacturers. They lie, they obfuscate, they deny, they hire professional liars (pr), they likely do not even admit privately that what they do is killing.
It is entirely possible that it will yet be a very long time before we end longwall mining and all that goes with it. But, I certainly hope not. For in the end, coal kills.
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