Wednesday, June 9, 2010

After Burning for 50 Years, Chinese Coal Fires May Finally Be Extinguished

coal seam fire china photo
Fire in Rujigou coalfield in China. Photo: Anupma Prakash
The Coal, The Coal is on Fire, Let the...
China has the worst underground coal fires on Earth. These fires, which have sometimes been raging out-of-control for decades, destroy as much as 20-200 million tons of coal each year (nobody knows the exact number), which is more than Germany's entire annual coal production. Inner Mongolia, which is a part of China and not to be confused with Mongolia, is China's biggest coal-producing region (637 million tonnes of coal just last year), and it's also #1 when it comes to massive coal fires. What can be done?

No comments:

Post a Comment