In the West Virginia coalfields—on the edge of which my aunt and uncle live, and where I spent holidays and vacations as a kid—the economic mood ranges from depressed to apocalyptic. At one point, more than 100,000 West ...
Economics & Business
Aug 10, 2020
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U.S. energy consumption plummeted to its lowest level in more than 30 years this spring as the nation's economy largely shut down because of the coronavirus, federal officials reported Wednesday.
Environment
Jul 29, 2020
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12
Coal will need to be phased out of the world's economy to meet the climate change challenge, but this can work properly only if social objectives and local stakeholders are involved in the process, an international group ...
Environment
Jul 28, 2020
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189
Perhaps the most iconic dinosaur is Tyrannosaurus rex, a massive predator that lived in what is now North America. We have now discovered that carnivorous dinosaurs of a similar size existed in ancient Australia as well.
Archaeology & Fossils
Jun 19, 2020
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8
If you want to see one of the wonders of the natural world, just startle a bombardier beetle. But be careful: when the beetles are scared, they flood an internal chamber with a complex cocktail of aromatic chemicals, triggering ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 16, 2020
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691
A team of researchers led by Arizona State University (ASU) School of Earth and Space Exploration professor Lindy Elkins-Tanton has provided the first ever direct evidence that extensive coal burning in Siberia is a cause ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 16, 2020
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Hope in the midst of crisis. Overflowing landfill sites in Asia may prove to be goldmines for local cement producers. So say researchers at the Norwegian research organization, SINTEF, who have extensive experience with the ...
Materials Science
Apr 22, 2020
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Coal combustion is not only the single most important source of CO2, accounting for more than a third of global emissions, but also a major contributor to detrimental effects on public health and biodiversity. Yet, globally ...
Environment
Mar 23, 2020
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75
Amid coronavirus chaos, the Victorian government announced its decision earlier this week to lift the ban on onshore gas exploration, but also to make the temporary state-wide ban on fracking permanent.
Environment
Mar 19, 2020
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6
It's not spring in New England until the herring are running. From late February to early April, two species of herring —alewife and blueback herring—return from the ocean and swarm the region's ponds and streams, seeking ...
Ecology
Mar 16, 2020
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7
Coal is a readily combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. It is composed primarily of carbon along with variable quantities of other elements, chiefly sulfur, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.
Coal was formed from layer upon layer of annual plant remains accumulating slowly that were protected from biodegradation by usually acidic covering waters that gave a natural antiseptic effect combating microorganisms and then later mud deposits protecting against oxidization in the widespread shallow seas — mainly during the Carboniferous period — thus trapping atmospheric carbon in the ground in immense peat bogs that eventually were covered over and deeply buried by sediments under which they metamorphosed into coal. In this manner, over time, the chemical and physical properties of the plant remains (believed to mainly have been fern-like species antedating more modern plant and tree species) were changed by geological action to create a solid material.
Coal, a fossil fuel, is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide, as well as one of the largest worldwide anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide emissions. Gross carbon dioxide emissions from coal usage are slightly more than those from petroleum and about double the amount from natural gas. Coal is extracted from the ground by mining, either underground or in open pits.
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