Word: coal
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Just as West Virginia families were hit with word of a deadly mine disaster on April 5, relatives of miners missing after a flood in China's coal belt welcomed some unexpected news. After eight days trapped underground, 115 coal miners in Shanxi province were dramatically rescued. In China, where mine disasters are grimly commonplace, the rescue was trumpeted as a miracle. And in the U.S., where mine safety is sometimes seen as a question that was resolved decades ago, the death of at least 25 men a painful reminder of the risks they face...
Perhaps the most stark ghost city is Kangbashi, in Inner Mongolia. Built in just five years, Kangbashi was designed to be the showcase urban center of Ordos City, a relatively wealthy coal-mining hub that's home to 1.5 million people. A public-works project worthy of Kubla Khan's "stately pleasure-dome," Kangbashi is filled with office towers, administrative centers, government buildings, museums, theaters and sports fields - not to mention acre on acre of subdivisions overflowing with middle-class duplexes and bungalows. The only problem: the district was originally designed to house, support and entertain 1 million people...
...Policy. The high price reflects anticipated losses in agriculture and real estate plus the cost of disease outbreaks and natural disasters associated with rising sea levels. The melt, he says, is already adding extra heat at an annual rate of 3 billion tons of CO2 - the equivalent of 500 coal-powered plants, or more than 40% of all U.S. fossil fuel emissions - and this is expected to more than double by the end of the century. (See the top 10 green ideas...
This is where we are, almost. Nor is Greece the only culprit. It is all the PIIGS: Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain. All of them have been shoveling too much coal. To keep their folks warm, they spread euros around like there is no tomorrow, especially to their powerful public-employees unions. By the same token, they have been loath to raise taxes, let alone take on entrenched interests. The fallout is right out of the introductory economics textbook. (Read: "Bailout Showdown: Greece and Germany Raise the Stakes...
...fiscal deficits of the PIIGS are among the highest in Euroland. Their unit-labor costs have risen faster than anywhere else. So their exports can't compete; hence they run some of the largest current-account deficits. What do you do when you shovel coal and run out of fuel? You borrow - as the PIIGS have done. The markets have cast their verdict on that. Now, Greece has to borrow at twice the interest rate that German bonds fetch...