History of Coal: Importance, Mining Techniques, and Environmental Impact

This article delves into the history of coal, highlighting its importance during the industrial revolution and its continued relevance as a source of energy. It discusses the control over labor force, space, and ideas of workers in coal production. The article also explores different mining techniques and the environmental impact of coal mining.

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History of coal
Coal mining has a long history of a thousand years ago. Coal became of great importance
during the industrial revolution of both 19th and 20th century. During this time coal was
basically used to produce electricity, steam the engines and also to temperature the buildings.
Coal mining is still referred to as an imperative economic activity. In comparison to the other
sources of energy such as wood, coal is known to be yielding a higher quantity of energy and
it might regularly be accessed in the areas where there are limited wood (Lovejoy and
Rodgers 45). However coal functioned as a local fuel but currently it is majorly used in the
industries to serve various functions of the industries. The large scale coal mining progressed
in the times of the industrial revolution and it served as the chief source of basic energy for
the industrial duties such as transportation and others.
The importance of coal as a source of energy still remains relevant; this is because it is
lower costs and in higher quantity as compared to the other sources of fuel. Currently coal
mining is done on a large scale basis. Britain established the major techniques of coal mining

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for example the underground mining. Though gas and oil have been increasingly used as
other options apart from the coal, coal mining has been both social and political subject. The
matters surrounding mining environment have been progressively important though some
limitations includes; the devastation of the landscape, health of the miners and air pollution.
How and in what ways HAS the production of coal always been about control over a
labour force, control over space/place and even control over “ideas of workers owning means
of production?
The production of coal which includes the open cast and the underground mines includes
dissimilar combination of energy, labour, material input configurations and capital. The
designing and planning the coal mine activities rely partly on the input features which rely on
the geological considerations (Katarzyna 97). In applying the cost model for mining,
activities, the labour requirements and sparkle are normally tested by use of the cost typical
for mining. During the First World War, there was a great depression which was featured by
the improved labour conflict and the union that is present in the Alberta’s coal industry.
However, this was never the first union activity in the region, both the united mine workers
and the western federation had achieved the insertion of togetherness to the region.
As 20th century continued, the labour fights intensified. It is well known that the situation
of the coal mining is not that easy given any circumstances. The main aim of those who
operated was to make a profit at the end of the day and this led to the conflict between the
workers due to their dissimilar interests in the mining process (McIvor and Johnston 234).
The matters related to this emerged as being the main point to the labour conflict emerged. It
included comfortable working environment, wages and the union appreciation. It was noticed
that the UMWA members were lively and they made determination to secure the freedoms

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and the rights of the workers in such areas. The federal government arbitrated on the
consideration that coal was very important and it assisted to convey for the higher wages of
the miners of coal because of their great task (Yenilmez and Esin 235).
Control over space.
The production of coal has been about control over space and the mining method that
should be taken care of to avoid destroying the ground is the surface mining. In this method
of mining the ground that covers the coal is normally detached so as to uncover the coal for
extraction. The basic elements for basic mining includes; withdrawal of the soil at the top and
kept for future use (Kamei 1120). Next is piercing the superimposing coal stratum. Next is
transferring the removed material to another place followed by backfilling using a cosset.
Next is distribution of the top soil over the area that has been extracted. The miners should
ensure that erosion is controlled in the place by planting vegetation and also ensuring the
quality of water in that area. Finally the miners should let the area be for other purposes and
not mining again.
Control over the ideas of the workers.
The production of coal has been able to control the ideas of its miners in different ways.
There are ways that have been established to control the pollution of coal which is a basic
component. The workers are supposed to be moved to the cleaner sources of energy so as to
protect their health, the environment and the economy (Hinde 101). The production of coal
made the advisory communities to call the workers to get their ideas and encounters of them
for the lasting economic sustainability of their community. They also recognized the plans to
support worker changeover (Jopp 950). This meeting assisted the panel to fully comprehend
the encounters and the chances that the community and workers come across to make sure

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that their commendations reply to the apprehensions and bring into line with the community
urgencies.
Historic and contemporary forms of labour control
The historic and the contemporary forms of the labour control suggest that there are three
main labour control administrations in the area. The three include employer repression,
market despotism and state control. The market disposition control involves the political
activities which establish the relations of the labour procedures through the guidelines of
struggles (Mittal 122). The employer repression is whereby both the workers, employers and
even their representatives interact to so as to form the basic rules and policies to govern the
work relationship. The labour control systems integrates both the communal principles and
performances advancement in technology has brought about some changes in the gratified
and the administration of work that have a critical impression on the scope to which
cooperative labour associations may progress and the track they are supposed to take
(Hethmon 42). There are also fresher methods of the employee depictions and contribution
that are accumulating supplementary measurement to the labour relations picture in a good
number of countries.
Massey energy and alpha discourses to convince workers.
The Massey energy stockholders will get 1.025 alpha shares for each Massey share and
this represents a 21 percentage premium over Massey’s closing share price. Next is that the
alpha natural resources of about 7.1 billion is supposed to buy the Massey energy Co, and this
was shocked by a deadly coal mining accident in the past years that killed so many people
who were miners.

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The rhetoric
Massey energy and alpha use the persuading language to the workers to motivate them to
continue with the work no matter the situations they are going through. Through the
persuasive speeches, the workers are normally easily convinced to carry on with their normal
duties so as to achieve their goals. They encourage the workers to continue with the coal
mining to uplift the name of the company.
Labour versus environmentalists
Human labour has impacted many factors on the environment. One of the factors is the
issue of the change of climate. The connection between the human labour and the
environment has played a role in creating negative effects on the environment. The basic
cause of the climate change is the overtime work of the humans towards the environment.
Though there are some of the strategies that have been put in place to preserve the
environment and to prevent the human labour from destroying the environment (Connell 8).
Environmentalism is widening into a movement that requires environmental, economic and
social sustainability. The environmental issues that may affect the humans are air pollution,
water pollution and climate change that had been mentioned earlier.
Those who conduct labour are still human beings who are also affected by the same result
of the environmental destruction just like everyone else is also affected. One of the human
activities that affect the environment is logging. It has become really hard to stop this activity
because it seems that so many people rely on the cutting of trees as a main source of
contribution to the materials that they require (Litschel 89). The logging of trees makes the
environment look ugly and since trees are the ones that normally attract the rain, there will be
reduced rainfall in such are where the logging has taken place.

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Another human activity that spoils the environment is mining. There have been rising
conflicts on the issue of mining in accordance to the experience that the workers have before
starting the mining process. Since there are higher demands of mining workers at the
industries, many people get employed including those without qualified skills that are
required (Wang 670). Many always go for the sake of earning money yet this field requires
those with experience and not just any person. Those without experience normally cause
damage to the environment as they carry out the mining process hence making the
environment to look ugly and disorganised. This is because these workers lack knowledge
about the negative effects that mining have on the environment. There has also ben lack of
environmental regulations that should guide the miners before they start the mining activities.
Human labour has also impacted negatively on the environment in terms of loss of habitat
throughout the wildlife. Various species have been affected on the mining areas and they
destroyed or forced to migrate due to the mining companies that only work towards achieving
their economic goals. Another factor that greatly brings changes in the environment is
tourism. Tourism can change many places into economically beneficial projects. Tourism has
become a greater industry in the whole world. One of the major issues that it brings along is
the littering of the environment which do not only have an impact on the environment but
also the animals that are within the ecosystem of that surrounding.
When the animals consume the litters that are disposed carelessly, it might either result to
their illness or even their death. Not only are the organisms in the land affected but also the
ones that dwell in the sea (Thomann 106). Tourism might also link the effects of logging
because in case of expansion of the industry, there might be cut down of the trees that
bringing a negative effect to the environment. Due to the expansion, a lot of resources are
normally affected. When destroying the environment in order to grow shows the

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unmaintainable prototypical that is being applied to in order to grow. Due to this, many
resources such as water and land are likely to be affected in the process of expansion.

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Work cited
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and the Contemporary Novel, 2017, pp. 1-11.
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Coal Mining, 2019, pp. 31-51.
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Vancouver Island. UBC P, 2011.
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rationalization in interwar Ruhr coal mining." The Economic History Review, vol. 70,
no. 3, 2016, pp. 944-976.
Kamei, Akito A. "Parental Absence and Agency: The Household Characteristics of
Hazardous Forms of Child Labour in Nepal." Journal of International Development,
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Coal Mining. Routledge, 2016.
Lovejoy, Paul E., and Nicholas Rogers. Unfree Labour in the Development of the Atlantic
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