January 4, 2006 - 12 coal miners' bodies were pulled from the Sago mine today, 44 hours after an explosion that sealed them in. The tragedy was amplified by a premature and false announcement, a day earlier, that all the trapped miners were alive, raising jubilation and hopes of their rescue. One miner was eventually rescued, but for the friends and family of the other 12, the reversal of news was devastating.
Watching John Sayle's 1987 film Matewan today gave me a deeper appreciation and empathy for what the miners and their community live and feel in the shadow of an unforgiving and dangerous line of work. While the conditions working in coal mines in the 1920's were undoubtably much more dangerous and foul, today's news reminds us all that the miners who extract coal from the earth are putting their life on the line to give us light - coal provides nearly half the electricity consumed in the U.S.
The struggle between a fledging union chapter and the Stone Mountain Mining Co. portrayed in the movie is a hommage to those workers who first organized to improve working conditions for miners. Today's tragic news revives and expands the hommage that Americans ought pay with their thoughts as these miners' families mourn their loss.
Would society have allowed the industrialized use of coal had it known about the tragedy and strife that it would bring? From the labor disputes, black lung disease and acid rain to CO2 emmissions and catastrophies like the one in Sago, the case would be hard to make. How will today's continuance of the practice be perceived 200 years from now?
Much like coltan mining in the Congo, the real price for the raw materials needed by our consumptive society is a combination of blood, money and environmental degradation.
As much as tragedies such as this prompt the discussion to move away from fossil fuels, it leaves one to wonder what regions such as Sago would have to harness if coal mining were to disappear.
Posted by: N McClure | January 16, 2006 at 04:28 PM