MODERN CHINA: China relies on coal to generate most of its electricity--with ill effects ranging from changing the global climate to imperiling the lives of Chinese miners.
Image: © Jonathan Watts
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Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Jonathan Watt's book, When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind--or Destroy It.
Cold, dark, silent. Close to death. Buried in the depths of a collapsed, illegal coal mine, Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou knew they had been given up for dead.
The rescue effort had been abandoned. The two brothers could no longer hear the sound of mechanical diggers, drills and spades above their heads. Dismayed and exhausted, they had stopped yelling frantically for help.
How long had it been? Hours, days, weeks? There was no way of knowing. When their mobile phone batteries died, they lost all track of time.
And place. With the silence and the darkness came disorientation. They were unsure which way led to the surface and which led deeper into the mountain. They had little evidence that they were even still alive. It was like being lost inside a tomb.
Above ground, their families were already preparing a funeral. In accordance with tradition, relatives had started burning 'ghost money' for the two brothers to spend in the other world. Negotiations had begun with the local authorities about compensation. Yet down below, the Mengs stubbornly refused to die.
Driven by a powerful instinct to survive, they fought against the earth and the darkness, against death itself. The brothers started digging. They hacked and shovelled, using a single pick and their bare hands. They were only a few dozen metres from the surface, but despite twenty years of mining experience, they were so panicked and confused by the darkness that they started to worry they were tunnelling deeper into the mountain. They changed direction once, twice, three times, before deciding to head straight up.
With every hour that passed they grew wearier and more depressed. It grew harder to dig, exhausting even to crawl. They filled water bottles with urine. The taste was so foul, they could only drink in small sips and felt like crying after they swallowed. Desperately hungry, Xianchen took to nibbling finger-sized pieces of coal, not knowing it had zero nutritional value. Yet they kept digging. Their companionship was a source of comfort and strength. They slept in each other's arms to stave off the cold and told jokes about their wives to maintain morale. 'My wife will be happy after I die. She can find a rich husband in Shenyang to replace me,' mused Xianchen out loud, then laughingly contradicted himself. 'But then again, she is an ugly woman with two children so it will be hard for her to remarry.' Humour does not get much blacker than laughter in a collapsed coal mine. But it kept them going for six days, until finally, miraculously, they scratched their way to the surface.
Weak and close to starvation, they emerged blinking into the light, then staggered to the village where they were met with a hero's welcome and incredulous joy that the dead could rise from their tombs. They were carried off to hospital, where the doctors treated their damaged kidneys and journalists bombarded them with questions. The mine owner, meanwhile, was on the run. Aware that the standard bribes would not protect him from a deadly accident investigation, he had fled as soon as he heard of the collapse.
The survival of the magnificent Meng brothers made front-page headlines in Beijing. Their experience captured the Chinese zeitgeist of the past thirty years—gritty, poor, dirty, illegal, dangerous, willing to go to almost any lengths to get ahead, ill as a result, but surviving long after being written off. They had been trapped in a carbon hell in which they dug, ate, inhaled and were almost suffocated by coal, yet they had lived to tell the tale.
China finds itself in a similar predicament in the first decade of this century. Demand for energy continues to grow and most of it comes from underground. The economy is utterly dependent on coal. It provides 69.5 per cent of the country's energy, a greater degree of reliance than that of any other major nation. This, more than anything, explains why China is so cautious in setting carbon targets in international climate talks such as the 2009 summit in Copenhagen. Cheap coal generates electricity for Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing, fires the steel mills of Huaxi, powers the production lines of Guangdong, and allows consumers in the West to buy Chinese goods at a knockdown price. No other fuel has such an impact on the environment.
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12 Comments
Add CommentI was in China recently and didnt find the air bad in Bejing, Shanghi or Dalian except for sand storm from the Gobi desert.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLots of cars, but all new so no old boats on the road spewing oil and gas fumes.
China is getting their act together and accomplishing things every single day, building dams, nuclear power plants and yes coal. Coal will be used for hundreds of years, the technology has allowed dramatic reductions in its outputs.
LOL--The question is a stupid one, because China has absolutely zero intention of doing without coal. Neither does India or a long list of other countries that want electricity. Increases in CO2 emissions over the next 50 years will come from those countries as they seek similar levels of electricity access that is available in developed countries today.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe main polluting use of coal in China are the large "tablets" that are used for heating in millions of homes. These are burned in primitive stoves, virtually all without any type of catalyst, and they pollute extensively.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor a very interesting chart on Co2 produced by nation and by nation-per-capita please see this link:
http://www.miller-mccune.com/science-environment/tracking-climate-change-24435/
You do realize that those nice new cars still produce a lot of CO2 even if they aren't 'spewing oil', don't you? All the coal fired electric generation facilities built in recent years my be cleaner than older designs, but still produce a lot of CO2. Please refer to candide's comment #4 link.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBy the way, were you a guest of the government or industry on your trip to China? Yes, they are building the future, but I think you missed a lot of sites and even cities exhibiting major environmental disasters. The future ain't that bright.
While polution is a major global probelm, it has become fashion by western corporate media including scientific publications to bash China. Has the author traveled to other developing countries whcih are US allies and seen the level of polution or price of human life. China is doing far better tahn many western darlings in Asia. SA should engage in science doscourse and not copy FOX, CNN, NYT and other corporate agencies. In fact, many Asian countries are getting epidemic of asthma and other chest ailments due to polution. However, they are praised as great, most powerful nations, flourishing democracies etc by western governments and media. Such double standard is sickening.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSilly article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was in Shandong 4 years ago. Thee were thousands of people everywhere...I didn't see anyone trapped in a coal pile.
Hint...China is bigger in geographic area than the USA. Los Angeles is not 'the USA' anymore than Beijing is 'China'.
Much of China's coal in future will come from China and Canada.... natural gas from russia and oil also from Canada. Huge contracts have already been signed and mines developed.
Overall, a silly misleading article. China will survive.
With Chinese nuclear costs projected to be less than their own coal within two to three years, its likely China will be going massively coal to nuclear after 2020.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRight now China wants to get their nuclear sales competitive advantage firmly established before letting their massive sales of wind and solar equipment to idiots in the west phase out in favour of Chinese nuclear exports.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/08/china-leverages-learning-curve-cost.html
Your point is valid, but I have to point out that China's emerging world economy has produced large increases in CO2 production in recent years. It is now the world's largest producer of CO2 emissions. Its continued economic growth will likely produce the largest change in CO2 production in the next several years.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEventually everybody will use another power source: Aether.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA Flying Saucer "taps" power out of the aether.
Tesla used it for powering his Pierce Arrow car in 1931.
Nasa could have had it when they were given the technology of Gravity Control but allowed some handymen in physics to screw it up with the big Black-out of 2003 as a result.
Then they informed the Nasa Head-Office that the System, used by a Flying Saucer, was unsuitable for Space Travel.
Coal burning will only be ecologically acceptable when power plant uses pure oxygen in the combustion cycle. That way only pure CO2 is produced which can be stored underground. But at present oxygen is expensive, but so too is CO2 capture and storage in present plant. There is the added advantage that there is no NOx either.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAgree with you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUSA and the Euro developed countries has beening using coal and pouring CO2 to the atmosphere for over a hundred year. The major part of CO2 comes from them. Now how can they stop others countires from using coal as a energy source?
Geothermic energy has a far greater potential for generating electricity than all fossil fuel reserves put together. When the Chineses leaders realise this, they will make the necessary investments that all the other world leaders are too ill-informed to introduce, because of the whining drivel emitted by the heads of big energy groups.
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