5 What future for coal?
Of all the known fuels, coal has occupied a special place in the countries that produce it. It made possible the industrial revolution as a fuel to produce steam to drive pumps, trains, ships, power plants and for domestic and industrial boilers. It is the most abundant of the fossil fuels, but the most difficult to extract, handle and store. It has killed many of the people who mined it and destroyed the health of most of the rest, and burning it has brought smog to the cities, and acid rain to lakes and rivers. In no way can it be described as a green energy source.
In the last fifty years coal has lost most of its traditional markets, leaving only power generation and parts of the steel and chemical industries as ...
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