Coal is huge, both here in the United States and abroad. Today, I was participating in a live discussion with Van Jones, the White House Special Advisor for Green Jobs. During the discussion, Jones mentioned that 50% of the power used in buildings in the U.S. comes from coal-fired power plants. The coal industry, and the coal lobby, is powerful here in the states. Clean coal commercials are sprinkled across the television and at first, I fell for the message.
However, we have much stricter regulations on the coal industry here in the U.S. than businesses in China do. A recent article from Reuters looks at the impact the coal industry has had on the birth defect rate in coal towns in the country.
“Experts say coal mining and processing has given Shanxi a rate of birth defects six times higher than China’s national average, which is already high by global standards.
“They looked normal when they were born. But they were still unable to talk or walk over a year later,” said farmer Hu Yongliang, 38, whose two older children are mentally handicapped.” Source: Reuters
Hu’s two children didn’t learn to walk until they were six or older. His daughter has a one-word vocabulary and his son is completely nonverbal. They don’t go to school and they don’t go out into public.
Common birth defects include neural tube defects, additional digits, heart disease, and more.
So for these residents of Shanxi Province, coal is certainly not clean.
Photo by Robert Thomson
