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Being that we blow up entire mountains to get much of our coal in the United States and coal mining is responsible for more environmental damage than any other form of energy and that the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history were related to coal mining, I cannot see how the decline of the coal industry in the United States and the corresponding rise of much, much, much cleaner natural gas, is a bad thing.
The worst case scenario for fracking has nothing on coal in terms of environmental damage. Coal is literally in a league of its own, and its not like coal mining has brought wealth to this country either, the poorest parts of the country are also the parts where coal mining is the main industry. This is how we get much of our coal:
Even if we could somehow burn it with zero emissions, we still would be scaring the land for literally millions of years mining it. (How long do you think it takes a mountain to form again?) You can literally see the environmental damage... the literal scaring of the land due to coal mining...from orbit. This isn't hyperbole either, just open up Google Earth and look at what the coal mining industry has done to much of Appalachia. That is how bad it is. If you are for more coal mining, then you obviously don't give a rats ass about this country's land.
The worst case scenario for fracking has nothing on coal in terms of environmental damage. Coal is literally in a league of its own, and its not like coal mining has brought wealth to this country either, the poorest parts of the country are also the parts where coal mining is the main industry. This is how we get much of our coal:
Even if we could somehow burn it with zero emissions, we still would be scaring the land for literally millions of years mining it. (How long do you think it takes a mountain to form again?) You can literally see the environmental damage... the literal scaring of the land due to coal mining...from orbit. This isn't hyperbole either, just open up Google Earth and look at what the coal mining industry has done to much of Appalachia. That is how bad it is. If you are for more coal mining, then you obviously don't give a rats ass about this country's land.
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