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Why has the world started to mine coal again? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Metal_Zealot@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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With climate change looming, it seems so completely backwards to go back to using it again.

Is it coal miners pushing to keep their jobs? Fear of nuclear power? Is purely politically motivated, or are there genuinely people who believe coal is clean?

Edit, I will admit I was ignorant to the usage of coal nowadays.

Now I'm more depressed than when I posted this

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[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Again? Did we stop?

It doesn't look like anyone has mentioned metallurgical coal yet. Even if you don't burn it for energy, the carbon in steel has to come from somewhere and that's usually coke, which is coal that has been further pyrolised into a fairly pure carbon producing a byproduct of coal tar.

[–] Gsus4@feddit.nl 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How much of that carbon is emitted Vs embedded in the steel matrix? 50%?

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago

I'm not actually sure. I imagine it depends on how exactly it's mixed in.

The green alternative would be to go back to charcoal (or "biochar" if you want to sound fancy), but it might be a bit more expensive.

[–] pfjarschel@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So that's where the name coke comes from! TIL!

[–] elkazz@aussie.zone 3 points 1 year ago

Coal is just Cola with the letters swapped around.