Word: coale
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Guizhou's sunbaked earth yields little above ground. But just a few meters down, the earth turns black and hard. The coal is tantalizingly easy to reach; so are the lethal pockets of gas that cause explosions or asphyxiate workers. Zhang's husband, Li Zhenhua, had worked for a decade in a cluster of small, illegal mines near his Duck Pond village. Whenever an accident claimed lives, the pit would be ordered to close?but another would invariably open not far away. Much of the illegal mining is done at night to avoid government monitors. In any case, the inspectors...
...unlicensed, unnamed mine near the village of Zhongzai, a bedraggled corps of 25 workers doesn't wait for the cover of night: even though the mine is illegal, no one has bothered to come check this remote corner of Bijie township. Blackened, sinewy men pull massive lumps of coal from a slimy tunnel. The miners disappear for up to five hours at a time into the cramped, disorienting dark, crouching low to heave their pickaxes into the crumbling blackness. To pass the time, some light cigarettes, risking a deadly explosion. The pay for a day's work...
...Despite its dirty, dangerous legacy, coal is what fuels China. While most other nations ended coal dependence years ago, China is still both the world's largest producer and consumer. Chairman Mao linked his country's future success to the cheap fuel, and from the hearth of the tiniest hut to the boiler rooms of big state-owned factories, coal is king. But decades of overuse have left sooty skies, polluted streams and eroded topsoil levels. Despite a pledge to cut down its contribution to global warming, China is the second-largest producer of greenhouse gases behind the U.S., with...
...Little wonder then that illegal mines mottle the landscape, even if some counties now produce so much that the price of coal has plummeted. With most of the small mines operating at barely profitable levels, workers are rarely supplied with labor contracts or insurance. The only piece of paper regularly produced by mine owners is a document waiving responsibility should any accident happen. Many of the miners are illiterate, so they simply press a black thumb to the disclaimer in lieu of a signature. Widow Zhang was promised compensation for her husband's death two months ago by a municipal...
...Bijie township, a woman complained to neighbors last month that mine owners didn't pay compensation for her husband's death. The next day, she disappeared. No one has heard from her since. A boy leading his mule past Heguantun village instinctively shakes his head when asked about coal mines in the area. Yet just meters away, in the center of this dusty hamlet, men haul bits of coal out of a narrow shaft. "This is not an illegal mine," insists its affable owner, Yan Lizhe. "It's too small...