Response Essay Assignment

“Cheap Oil and Its Impact”

Written by :

Name : Ernyta Mei Lestari

NIM : 16419277
Class : 04

Faculty of Mining and Petroleum Engineering

Bandung Institute of Technology
 Response Essay

Effects Of Mining on the Environment and Human Health

Based from the article about "Effects Of Mining on the Environment and Human
Health", writers claim that mining has many disadvantages. To support Enviro's
Editor arguments, he also included facts and examples of real impacts that were
often experienced by miners and life around the mining area. I do agree on mining
has a bad impact for us. And I think all of the statements about strip mining and
underground mining are truly true.Therefore, it is hoped that people, especially
mining companies, will be more aware in overcoming the impacts of mining.
Bad mining practices can ignite coal fires, which can burn for decades, release
fly ash and smoke laden with greenhouse gasses and toxic chemicals.The quotation
from Environmental Aspects and Impacts its Mitigation Measures of Corporate Coal
Mining is fact and I agree with this quotation, bad mining practices can ignite impact
more than usual. So, people must do the mining practices appropriately and obey
the rules of mining to reduce the impact for us. And also the government must be
more assertive, to reduce illegal miners who carry out activities carelessly without
any environmental improvement after the mining process.
Furthermore, mining activities also destroy landscapes. "Strip mining accounts
for 40% of the worlds coal mines and the practices destroys landscapes, forests and
wildlife habitation. It usually requires mountain blasting and the removal of trees and
plants in the mining area". I think this quotation from article 'How the mining of coal is
harmful to the environment' is relevant with the topic of Environment News South
Africa. I do agree with it, because the surface will be damaged after mining and the
shape will also change. But in Indonesia there are regulations that mentioned in Law
No. 4 of 2009 concerning mineral and coal mining. After conducting mining activities,
every mining companies must insure the place that has been mined to be as a green
area.
"The result of all this is barren land that stays contaminated long after a coal
mine shuts down."I agree with the statement from the text, after the mining process
is completed, the area that has been mined by open pit mining will produce an area
that is very barren for a number of years after mining, but after that the miners will
redefine the area because all companies must be environmentally friendly in exploit
the natural resources. Look deep into nature, and then you will understand
everything better.— Albert Einstein. I got this memorable quote when I was surfing
on Pinterest and I think quote from Albert Einstein has a correlation with this topic,
we must take care the nature as we take care ourselves.
"Mine collapses and accidents kill thousands of workers around the world every
year. Chinese coal mine accidents killed 4,700 people in 2006."I am very concerned
about the quotation, because I think that mining practices should take fewer victims if
they comply with safety rules. It does not rule out the possibility of a disaster as well,
and It could be happened due to negligence of miners or companies carelessly
mining the stone. And I want to give advice, before starting the activity in mining
practices area, each miner must know the steps to evacuate in the event of an
emergency.
"Although many countries require reclamation plans for coal mining sites,
undoing all the environmental damages to water supplies, destroyed habitats, and
poor air quality is a long and problematic task."I agree with this statement because
mining practices must be reclamation. Although the reclamation process is fairly long
and quite difficult to do, the miners must make an effort to actually carry out the
reclamation process until the location is beautiful even though it is not returning to
normal. For example, the reclamation carried out on bauxite mined land by PT.
HPAM, from the beginning they have realized that mining activities has damage to
the social and environment. So, PT. HPAM anticipates this by preparing EIA
documents.
"While underground mining, which allows coal companies to extract deeper
deposits of coal, is viewed as less destructive than strip mining, the effects of mining
widespread damage to the environment."I disagree with the quotation, because
something that is not visible on the surface is not necessarily better than the visible
thing and maybe the invisible thing has a very large impact. In this article, a section
on the impacts of underground mining can be seen that underground mining may be
more dangerous and the danger can occur suddenly.
"Impact of underground mining causes subsidence as mines collapse and the
land above it starts to sink. This causes serious damage to buildings."I agree with
the quote, if underground mining is not immediately reclaimed, disasters such as
surface land collapse resulting from underground dredging will make more losses
and disaster victims. Examples of reclamation is reclamation at the site of a former
gold and copper mine in Batu Hijau, West Nusa Tenggara.
"Worldwide emissions are expected to increase by 20 percent in the next 12
years."This quotation caught my attention because emissions caused by pollution
from human activities, not only mining but also others can increase world emissions
so quickly. As reported on the page "Liputan 6", "The report issued Monday 8
October 2018 by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) under the UN Paris Climate Agreement says, Earth will experience an
increase in global temperatures beyond the minimum threshold set 1 .5 degrees
Celsius as early as 2030."And we must immediately find a solution to avoid this
problem.
"Acid mine drainage is created when water mixes with coal and other rocks
unearthed during mining, taking on toxic levels of minerals and heavy metals."This
quotation represents most of the impact of the mine on. This acid mine drainage has
a large enough impact to be concerned, because water is a very important source of
life for us so it must always be maintained.
In the conclusion, we can know that coal mining activities have negative aspects
that can cause social and environmental. And also greatly affect the health of people
who live near mining areas. Hopefully the problem will be resolved immediately, at
least not disturbing the environment around the mine areas.

Reference
- Dontala. T, Reddy Byragi, Vadde Ramesh. 2015. "Environmental Aspects and
Impacts its Mitigation Measures of Corporate Coal Mining".
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878522015000533. Elsevier.
2015.
- Anonymous. 13 May 2014. "How the mining of coal is harmful to the environment".
https://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Coal-Mining-Effects-on-the-Environment.
TheWorldCounts. 2014.
- Prasetyo, Didik. 8 June 2015. "Reklamasi lahan bekas tambang bauksit PT.
HPAM".
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kompasiana.com/amp/dipras/reklamasi-lahan-
bekas-tambang-bauksit-pt-hpam_5576ad9e319773ba4128e5fe. Kompasiana. 2015.
- Hasan, Rizki Akbar. 8 October 2018. "PBB: Kita Hanya Punya Waktu 12 Tahun
untuk Cegah Malapetaka Pemanasan Global".
https://m.liputan6.com/global/read/3662451/pbb-kita-hanya-punya-waktu-12-tahun-
untuk-cegah-malapetaka-pemanasan-global. Liputan6. 2018.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Effects Of Mining on the Environment and Human Health

Effects of Mining
Coal mining, the first step in the dirty lifecycle of coal, causes deforestation and releases
toxic amounts of minerals and heavy metals into the soil and water. The effects of mining
coal persists for years after coal is removed.

Destruction and poison linger

Bad mining practices can ignite coal fires, which can burn for decades, release fly ash and
smoke laden with greenhouse gasses and toxic chemicals. Furthermore mining releases coal
mine methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Coal dust
inhalation causes black lung disease among miners and those who live nearby, and mine
accidents kill thousands every year. Coal mining displaces whole communities, forced off
their land by expanding mines, coal fires, subsidence and contaminated water supplies. There
are two widely used ways of mining: strip mining and underground mining.
A. Strip mining
Strip mining (also known as open cast, mountaintop or surface mining) involves
scraping away earth and rocks to get to coal buried near the surface. In many cases,
mountains are literally blasted apart to reach thin coal seams within, leaving permanent scars
on the landscape as a result.
Strip mining accounts for about 40 percent of the world’s coal mines but in some
countries, such as Australia, open cast mines make up 80 percent of mines. Even though it’s
highly destructive, industry often prefers strip mining as it requires less labour and yields
more coal than underground mining.
Impacts of strip mining:
- Strip mining destroys landscapes, forests and wildlife habitats at the site of the mine when
trees, plants, and topsoil are cleared from the mining area. This in turn leads to soil erosion
and destruction of agricultural land.
- When rain washes the loosened top soil into streams, sediments pollute waterways. This can
hurt fish and smother plant life downstream, and cause disfiguration of river channels and
streams, which leads to flooding.
- There is an increased risk of chemical contamination of ground water when minerals in
upturned earth seep into the water table, and watersheds are destroyed when disfigured land
loses the water it once held.
- Strip mining causes dust and noise pollution when top soil is disrupted with heavy
machinery and coal dust is created in mines.
- The result of all this is barren land that stays contaminated long after a coal mine shuts
down.

Although many countries require reclamation plans for coal mining sites, undoing all the
environmental damages to water supplies, destroyed habitats, and poor air quality is a long
and problematic task. This land disturbance is on a vast scale. In the US, between 1930 and
2000, coal mining altered about 2.4 million hectares [5.9 million acres] of natural landscape,
most of it originally forest. Attempts to re-seed land destroyed by coal mining is difficult
because the mining process has so thoroughly damaged the soil. For example, in Montana,
replanting projects had a success rate of only 20-30 percent, while in some places in Colorado
only 10 percent of oak aspen seedlings that were planted survived.
In China, coal mining has degraded the quality of land of an estimated 3.2 million
hectares, according to a 2004 estimate. The overall restoration rate (the ratio of reclaimed
land area to the total degraded land area) of mine wasteland was only about 10–12 percent.

B. Underground mining
The majority of the world’s coal is obtained through underground mines. While underground
mining, which allows coal companies to extract deeper deposits of coal, is viewed as less
destructive than strip mining, the effects of mining widespread damage to the environment. In
room-and-pillar mines, columns of coal are left to support the ground above during the initial
mining process, then they are often taken out and the mine is left to collapse, which is known
as subsidence. In longwall mines, mechanical shearers strip the coal from the mines. Support
structures that enable the shearers’ access to the mine are eventually removed, and the mine
collapses. It is these effects of mining that nobody sees but are the most troubling of all.
Impacts of underground mining :
- Underground mining causes huge amounts of waste earth and rock to be brought to the
surface – waste that often becomes toxic when it comes into contact with air and water.
- It causes subsidence as mines collapse and the land above it starts to sink. This causes
serious damage to buildings.
- It lowers the water table, changing the flow of groundwater and streams. In Germany for
example, over 500 million cubic metres of water are pumped out of the ground every year.
Only a small percentage of this is used by industry or local towns – the rest is wasted. What’s
worse is that removing so much water creates a kind of funnel that drains water from an area
much larger than the immediate coal-mining environment.

Coal mining produces also greenhouse gas emissions.

A. Coal mine methane
Coal mine methane, less prevalent in the atmosphere than CO2, but 20 times as powerful
as a greenhouse gas, forms during the geological formation of coal, and is released during the
coal mining process. Most coal mine methane come from underground mines. While this
methane is often captured and used as town fuel, industrial fuel, chemical feedstock and
vehicle fuel, it’s very rare that it all gets used.[vii] Methane is also used in power generation
projects. However, despite big investment in research, only about 50 such projects exist
worldwide.
In China, which mines more than 95 percent of its coal underground, about 300 of the
state-owned mines are classified as methane-outburst prone. The effects of mining coal in
China have become increasingly clear in modern times.
Worldwide emissions are expected to increase by 20 percent in the next 12 years.

B. Coal fires
Coal fires – burning or smouldering coal seams, coal storage piles or coal waste piles –
are a significant environmental problem in many countries, including China, Russia, the US,
Indonesia, Australia and South Africa. Underground coal fires can burn for centuries, filling
the atmosphere with smoke laden with carbon-monoxide (CO), carbon-dioxide (CO2),
methane (CH4), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrous oxides (NOx) and other greenhouse or toxic
gases – as well as fly ash from vents and fissures. Other effects of coal fires include rising
surface temperatures and contamination of groundwater, soil and air.
Although coal fires can be caused by thunderstorm lightning, and forest or peat fires,
they are often caused by mining accidents and improper mining techniques. In Indonesia, the
same fires that are used to clear large tracts of rainforest have ignited over 300 coal fires
since the 1980s.
China has the world’s most coal fires, while India accounts for the world’s greatest
concentration. In China, between 15 and 20 million tons of coal burn uncontrollably each
year, accounting for between 0.1 percent and 1 percent of the world’s human-induced CO2
emissions, (Although coal fires are significant, emissions from power plants are far higher.)

C. Acid mine drainage

Acid mine drainage is created when water mixes with coal and other rocks unearthed
during mining, taking on toxic levels of minerals and heavy metals. This toxic water leaks out
of abandoned mines to contaminate groundwater, streams, soil, plants, animals and humans.
As a result an orange colour can blanket the river, estuary or sea bed killing plants and
making surface water unusable as drinking water. Acid Mine Drainage is one of the biggest
effects of mining being felt around the world, especially in South Africa where the problem
has been ignored for over 100 years. A well known organisation in South Africa, the
Federation for a Sustainable Environment, spearheaded by Ms Mariette Liefferink has been
fighting the issue of the effects of mining and Acid Mine Drainage with government and
mining companies for 2 decades.

Common health threats posed by coal mining:

Pneumoconiosis, aka black lung disease or CWP, is caused when miners breathe in coal dust
and carbon, which harden the lungs. Estimates show that 1,200 people in the US still die from
black lung disease annually. The situation in developing countries is even worse.
Cardiopulmonary disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, lung disease,
and kidney disease have been found in higher-than-normal rates among residents who live
near coal mines, according to a 2001 US study.
Toxic levels of arsenic, fluorine, mercury, and selenium are emitted by coal fires, entering the
air and the food chain of those living nearby.
Mine collapses and accidents kill thousands of workers around the world every year. Chinese
coal mine accidents killed 4,700 people in 2006.