Here is a Pit Check check from Gascoigne Wood Colliery. Part of the Selby coal field. Worked from the 1970s, with mining ceasing by 2004. Producing 12 million tons a year at its peak in 1993-4, it was originally estimated at producing 600 milliion tons, but only ended up producing 121 million tons. A Pit Check was a way of checking miners into / out of the mine, so you oculd tell who was down there at any given time. Some info here: https://middletonlife.wordpress.com/2017/04/25/pit-or-colliery-checks-tokens-or-tallies/
#TokenTuesday #Mining #Coal #Token

Our environmental laws are failing us in the face of the climate crisis

"If we don’t stop this rampant approval of fossil fuel projects, by 2073 we’ll be living through the large-scale destruction of ecosystems and will have breached multiple tipping points, leading to the collapse of our food systems and hellish heat and fires."

"If we don’t get this right, we’re not just making every day Threatened Species Day, we’re headed towards a toxic, sad, future, with damage and destruction that cannot be unwound. There are no second chances or take backs, it’s now or never."

Prof Tim Flannery is a former climate commissioner, chief councillor at the Climate Council and one of Australia’s leading writers on climate change

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/09/our-environmental-laws-are-failing-us-in-the-face-of-the-climate-crisis
#FossilFuels #coal #Australia #environment #law #legacy #EnvironmentalManagement #extinction #biodiversity #climate

Today in Labor History September 10, 1897: A sheriff and deputies killed 19 striking miners and wounded 40 others in Lattimer mine, near Hazelton, Pennsylvania during a peaceful mining protest. Many of those killed were originally brought in as strikebreakers, but then later organized and joined the strike. The miners were mostly Polish, Lithuanian, Slovak and German. The massacre was a turning point for the UMW. Working and safety conditions were terrible. 32,000 miners had died from 1870-1897, just in the northeastern coalfields of Pennsylvania. Wages had dropped 17% since the mid-1890s.

The strike began in mid-August, when teenage mule drivers walked off the job to protest the consolidation of stables, which had forced them to walk much further just to get to work. After a scuffle between drivers and supervisors, two thousand men walked out, as well. Soon, all the mines in the region had joined the strike. Most of the men who weren’t already members of the UMW quickly joined the union. Up to 10,000 miners were now on strike. The mine owners’ private police, known as the Coal & Iron Police (miners called them Cossacks, for their brutality), was too small to quash the strike, so they called on the sheriff to intervene. He mustered a posse of 100 Irish and English immigrants, who confronted the miners as they marched toward Latimer, on Sep 10. Along the way, they joked about how many miners they were going to kill.

The massacre provoked a near uprising. The sheriff called for the deployment of the National Guard, which sent 2,500 troops to quell the unrest. 10 days later, a group of Slavic women, armed with fire pokers and rolling pins, led 150 men and boys to shut down the McAdoo coal works, but were stopped by the National Guards. The sheriff, and 73 deputized vigilantes, were put on trial. However, despite evidence clearly showing that most of the miners had been shot in the back, and none had been armed, they were all acquitted.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #coal #mining #union #strike #latimer #massacre #police #PoliceBrutality #PoliceMurder #immigration

@JetlagJen

My views on how "some" think about #ClimateChange are generally limited to what l read on social media. Maybe more of the public has "woken up" to the threat of climate change.

But, l live in a society, a county, where local people burn coal, wood, kerosene, diesel, petrol, etc. Plus the national gov wants to open a #coal mine in #Whitehaven (apparently many locals support that) & is planning on drilling for more North Sea oil & gas.

It's what they do & don't do, that matters.

#ToxicAir Resulted in #Cancer for #Navajo, #Apache and #WesternShoshone

#Copper and Gold #Mining, and #Coal-Fired Power Plants, Resulted in Cancer for Navajo, Apache, and Western #Shoshone

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, September 4, 2023

"A copper smelter poisoning the air of Apaches, the coal-fired power plants on the #NavajoNation, and gold mining on Western Shoshone land, are among the top causes of cancer from #AirPollution in the United States, according to a new report, Poison in the Air, by #ProPublica.

"The #FreeportMcMoran copper smelter in #MiamiArizona -- located between the #SanCarlos #ApacheNation, and Apaches Sacred #OakFlat -- is the third in the United States for producing toxic air pollution causing cancer. The poison air means the central Arizona community of Miami has ten times the EPA's acceptable risk of cancer. Apaches are now in federal court battling both the mining industry, and the #BidenAdministration to stop another #CopperMine nearby at Oak Flat which would destroy their ceremonial place."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/09/toxic-air-resulted-in-cancer-for-navajo.html

#EnvironmentalRacism #ToxicAir #Mining #IndigenousNews #SaveOakFlat #NativeAmericanNews

Very happy to see that the EPA is prosecuting the Metropolitan Colliery for last year's wastewater spill in the Royal.

#RoyalNationalPark #peabodyCoal #coal #Sydney l
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-08/epa-takes-legal-action-against-metropolitan-collieries-nsw/102832864

“In the tradition of Upton Sinclair and Jack London, Michael Dunn gives us a gritty portrait of working-class life and activism during one of the most violent eras in U.S. labor history. Anywhere but Schuylkill is a social novel built out of passion and the textures of historical research. It is both a tale of 1870s labor unrest and a tale for the inequalities and injustices of the twenty-first century.”

-Russ Castronovo, author of Beautiful Democracy and Propaganda 1776.

Available on Sep 19, 2023, from all the usual online distributors, or direct from my publisher: http://wix.to/M9gMx11

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #HistoricalFiction #ficiton #novel #coal #mining #author #writer @bookstadon

Utility exec told lawmakers that a frozen gas pipeline was to blame. PSC filings reveal the rest of the story.

What he did not mention was that coal-fired power also had failed — enough so that if the utility’s coal-fired generation had been operating at capacity the rolling blackouts would have been averted.

#EnergyMastodon #EnergyTransition #Climate #Coal

https://kentuckylantern.com/2023/09/08/coal-fired-power-failures-during-winter-storm-come-to-light-months-later/

"Australia still emits more greenhouse gas from burning coal on a per capita basis than other G20 countries despite a significant rise in solar and wind energy."

#Australia #Coal #FossilFuels #Energy

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/05/australia-has-highest-per-capita-co2-emissions-from-coal-in-g20-analysis-finds

Adam Bandt urges Australians to ‘embrace’ civil disobedience and join climate protests

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/30/adam-bandt-urges-australians-to-embrace-civil-disobedience-and-join-climate-protests?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Greens leader says Albanese government is ‘hellbent on opening more coal and gas mines’ and people must ‘fight back’.
#Australia #climate #environment #bribery #corruption #mining #corporation #coal #gas #communitydefense #selfdefense #collapse

How are your state or territory senators voting on government investment in fossil fuels?

Find out at theyvoteforyou.org.au/policies/250

[Alt text: A black and white image showing a machine boring into the ground while windfarms stand in the background. The text overlaid on the image says "Are your senators voting to end public investment in fossil fuels?" And then provides the web address for the policy.]

#AusPol #FossilFuels #ClimateChange #coal #gas #oil

Smashed records - An unmistakable rising trend in global temperatures

“Breaking heat records has become the norm in 2023. Global warming continues because we have not stopped burning fossil fuels. It is that simple."
Dr Friederike Otto, at Imperial College London

“There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.” Report by leading climate scientists

“2023 is the year that climate records were not just broken but smashed. Extreme weather events are now common and getting worse every year – this is a wake-up call to international leaders that we must rapidly reduce carbon emissions now.” Prof Mark Maslin, at University College London

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/06/summer-of-2023-hottest-recorded-in-wake-up-call-to-cut-carbon-emissions
#FossilFuels #coal #disasters #BusinessAsUsual

Today in Labor History September 6, 1869: The Avondale fire killed 110 miners, including several juveniles under the age of 10. It led to the first mine safety law in Pennsylvania. Avondale is near Plymouth, Pennsylvania. The Susquehanna River flows nearby. The mine had only one entrance, in violation of safety recommendations at the time. In the wake of the fire, thousands of miners joined the new Workingmen’s Benevolent Association, one of the nation’s first large industrial unions (and precursor to the United Mineworkers). My book, “Anywhere But Schuylkill,” opens with this fire. My main character, Mike Doyle, joins the bucket brigade trying to put out the flames shooting out of the mineshaft.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #mining #coal #avondale #disaster #WorkplaceDeaths #WorkerSafety #union #HistoricalFiction #novel #books #author #writer @bookstadon

Origin Energy wanted the NSW government to assume liability for the losses at Eraring & pay $10 million a year to manage its decline.

I wouldn't take long to reject a deal for which I paid all of the costs but received none of the benefits & hope NSW won't either.

#Auspol #coal #energy
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-06/secret-documents-detail-failed-efforts-to-save-eraring/102817002

Future-proofing Australia in a climate emergency?

"In 2019-2020, the Black Summer fires killed or displaced three billion native animals, burned an area equivalent to Belgium and hospitalised thousands from smoke pollution...It also doubled the nation’s greenhouse gas output."

“Never has the destructive force of climate change revealed itself so widely across the globe, and the explosion of climate-fuelled d i s a s t e r s has given billions of people a f i r s t - h a n d u n d e r s t a n d i n g of their ferocity — and impact,” says Council on Foreign Relations climate fellow Alice Hill."

“Like a world war, climate change is a threat to people, law and order, stability, quality of life, the economy and health infrastructure,” she says. “But it’s worse. The extreme events caused by climate change have other impacts.” The ANU’s Head of Disaster Solutions, Associate Professor Roslyn Prinsley, says Australia desperately needs a national Disaster Resistance Authority."

"The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority has warned Australia must invest $3.5 billion each year to limit the damage from increasingly frequent natural hazards...What they suggest is that simply responding to disasters after the fact is likely to cost 11 times more,” Prof Prinsley explains."

"But future-proofing is not politically popular. In the 20 years to 2022, $24 billion was spent on disaster recovery and relief efforts. Only $510 million was spent on resilience projects."

https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/adapt-or-die-nightmare-weather-coming-for-unprepared-australia/news-story/c9373216f21e42621e16f5f74096a86a
#FossilFuels #coal #disasters #prevention #bushfires #smoke #pollution #floods #deforestation #disruption #extinction makers

freaking amazing technology, making a massive reduction in MINING #GHG emissions, and recognizing that mining to support the #RenewableTransition is a huge reduction in the Destruction done mining for #Oil #Gas #Coal!

https://youtu.be/6TxMeHRq1mk?si=KbS832oc3PVYvEk7

My publisher just sent me the formatted ebook copy of my new novel: ANYWHERE BUT SCHUYLKILL!

Just have to correct any errors and then it'll be ready to launch, later this week or next!!

Curious?

Check my website for details: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/

Order it soon from Historium Press: http://wix.to/M9gMx11

#AnywhereButSchuylkill #HistoricalFiction #novel #books #LaborHistory #WorkingClass #author #writer #coal #mining #police #PoliceBrutality #WorkplaceSafety #ChildLabor

India 🇮🇳 steps up #coal 🏭 use to stop outages triggered by unusually dry weather reducing hydro output⚡️📉 https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/india-steps-up-coal-use-stop-outages-triggered-by-unusually-dry-weather-2023-09-03/ #ClimateCrisis🚨

🇺🇸 West Virginia 👀

• 91 % coal powered
• Saving a coal power plant from being shut down
• Expanding the plant to burn twice the amount of coal

"Coal is such an important part of our economy and our state’s history" - West Virginia’s governor

(1/2) #WestVirginia #USA #coal

"Anywhere but Schuylkill" by Michael Dunn - coming soon from Historium Press! Check it out!! http://wix.to/M9gMx11

“The Banshees of Inisherin and 1917 are two of the best historical films I’ve seen in recent years, particularly the cinematography. Yet the visuals Michael Dunn creates in Anywhere But Schuylkill, are richer, more vivid, more imaginative, and more haunting and indelible than what I recall in those brilliant films. It’s like the author transports himself to each scene and brings to life each physical detail, each expression, each emotion, and each word of dialogue with the care of a Renaissance painter.”

—David Aretha, award-winning author of Malala Yousafzai and the Girls of Pakistan and Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1963 March on Washington.

#AnyWhereButSchuylkill #HistoricalFiction #fiction #novel #author #writer #coal #miners #union #strike #pennsylvania #WorkingClass #LaborHistory #ChildLabor #PoliceBrutality #capitalism @bookstadon