Opencast Disaster
Opencast mining - big, bad and ugly.
While we’ve been getting excited about the protests against new coal that have been kicking off in the past few weeks, and getting ready for climate camp next month, it’s worth remembering that the coal industry continues to rumble on in the background - extracting, transporting and burning the most climate damaging of all the fossil fuels. Surely, we reckon, when you’re in a hole, you should just… stop digging?
There are 14 deep coal mines open in the UK at the moment, and 4 more planned. Deep coal mines are what you might traditionally think of when it comes to coal mining, but things have changed a bit these days. For the coal industry’s expansion plans, opencast is where it’s really at - there are 33 opencast mines in the UK at the moment, with 30 more in planning or development - a near doubling of mine sites.
Currently, 29% of the coal we use comes from the UK. While we’re generally in favour of local produce, we draw the line at coal. The Government, on the other hand, would like to see that figure go up. They’ve said that they want to “maximise economic recovery… from remaining coal reserves” - which as far as we can work out means digging it up, making power companies rich by letting them burn it, and messing up our chances of having a safe climate in the future. Oh well!
Why is opencast poised for such a huge expansion? Simply, because it’s the cheapest way to extract coal from the ground. Using enormous mechanised machines, a small number of workers can rip apart the landscape and get to the coal, meaning no need for expensive underground tunnels and shafts. Unfortunately, this makes opencast amazingly destructive to the environment around the mine, as well as a climate disaster. It also means that new mines usually provide very few jobs.
The government approved 10 new open cast mines in 2006 - including Ffos-y-Fran and Lodge House in Derbyshire, the site of which is currently being occupied by some active citizens who are busy stopping work from starting on site. Between 2000 and 2004 the Government also provided £220 million in subsidy to coal mines, and that money isn’t going to dry up any time soon.
The good news is that people are increasingly joining the dots between local and global, mines and coal power stations, how we choose to get our power and what kind of planet we are going to have to live on in twenty years. After all, it’s not like there aren’t plenty of good alternatives to coal.
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