New Breakthrough Study: Coal and Mortality in Appalachia
Jun 22nd, 2009 by admin
A new study recently released has found that coal lowers life expectancy — not a surprise to those living in coalfield communities. This study assigns a monetary value to the human life lost and finds that coal comes up $34 billion short each year.
The estimated number of lives lost each year to destructive coal practices is 1,736 and 2,889 people. Hendryx and Ahern measure that these human beings are collectively worth about $42 billion. The coal industry contributes $8 billion in revenue.
Assigning a monetary value to a human life is a cruel bottom line, but the premature death of thousands of good people each year is crueler still. This study illustrates this tragic loss of human life for “cheap” energy in a way that coal companies and governments understand — cold hard cash.
One hopes that this study will wake our government up, that officials will realize human lives are worth even more than money, and the swift transition to a healthy, sustainable economy begins as soon as possible.
Coal’s costs outweigh benefits, WVU study finds By Ken Ward Jr.
