6 replies to this topic

[Habsish]

Seems as if China's problem with coal seam fires is a bigger threat to the world than you leaving your TV on stand by.

My link

Habsish

[pitwood]

Habsish, on 23 February 2011 - 18:58 , said:

Seems as if China's problem with coal seam fires is a bigger threat to the world than you leaving your TV on stand by.

My link

Habsish

Wow that is really scary.

P

[Habsish]

Makes you wonder how you put it out.

Is there anything similar in UK?

H

Found this as well

My link

[Weather Ship]

The oldest known continuously burning fire is an underground coal fire in New South Wales, Australia. This fire apparently started over 2,000 years ago when lightning struck a large coal seam at a point where it reached the surface of the earth. Today the fire is more than 500 feet (152 meters) underground, and is still slowly eating away at the coal.

There is also a famous one in Centralia Pennsylvania thats been burning since 1962. I don't know of any in the UK.

Edited by weather ship, 23 February 2011 - 19:51 .

[Essan]

There aren't any in the UK

It could be argues that - as with the Australian example - some such fire would occur naturally. But I'm sure those in China and the US are attributable to humans and thus up our carbon emission quota.

Switching the lights (or TV) off won't change things that much. But if a man is drowning anyway, does it matter if you push him another 1mm underwater? Besides, turning the lights off would save us an awful lot of money, if only we could work out how to do it. Irrespective of what is happening elsewhere.

But then we all have so much money, does it really matter?

Edited by Essan, 23 February 2011 - 20:33 .

[Weather Ship]

Quote

Beginning in 1993, Chinese scientists joined with Dutch and, later, German researchers to map China’s coal fires from satellites and aircraft, leading to the discovery of many new fires. “We know there are thousands, but it is too hard to count,” says Stefan Voigt, a geographer at the GermanAerospaceCenter near Munich. Extinguishing the fires would require heavy equipment to dig them out and smother them with soil—but China is still largely dependent on picks and shovels. “The Chinese recognize the problem,” says Voigt, “but sometimes they’ll say: ‘We don’t need more science. We need more bulldozers.’ ”

China has the most coal fires, but India, where largescale mining began more than a century ago, accounts for the world’s greatest concentration of them. Rising surface temperatures, and toxic byproducts in groundwater and soil, have turned the densely populated Raniganj, Singareni and Jharia coal fields into vast wastelands. Subsidence has forced relocations of villages and roads—then re-relocations, as fire fronts advance. Rail lines give way; buildings disappear. In 1995, a Jharia riverbank was undermined by fire and crumbled; water rushed into underground mines, killing 78. Perhaps the most terrifying spectacle is the unquenched fire itself: many blazes smoldered quietly in old underground tunnels until recently, when modern strip pits exposed them to air. The revitalized flames erupted, engulfing the region in a haze of soot, carbon monoxide and compounds of sulfur and nitrogen. Burning coal also releases arsenic, fluorine and selenium. (Studies in China have suggested that the millions of people who use coal for cooking are being slowly poisoned by such elements.) Even so, workers continue to labor in this highly toxic environment.

Extract from a fairly lengthy article in the Smithsonian.

http://www.smithsoni...l/10013541.html

Edited by weather ship, 23 February 2011 - 22:12 .

[NorthNorfolkWeather]

Habsish, on 23 February 2011 - 19:14 , said:

Makes you wonder how you put it out.

Is there anything similar in UK?

H

Found this as well

My link

There was in South Wales in the 1960's, but somehow they managed to put it out.

I'll see if I can find any links