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"Coal fires are a problem all over the world. Such fires endanger nearby communities, waste precious resources and produce tons of noxious and greenhouse gases.
by i_feel_great 8y ago
"Coal fires are a problem all over the world. Such fires endanger nearby communities, waste precious resources and produce tons of noxious and greenhouse gases. Centralia is not the only coal fire burning in the United States. In fact, it’s just one of 38 burning in Pennsylvania alone. The hundreds of underground fires in the United States, from Pennsylvania to Alabama to Wyoming, combined with the thousands thought to be burning in China, India and elsewhere, are one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide and pollution on Earth."
What really?
- gpm 8y agoWikipedia claims they account for 3% of CO2 emissions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_seam_fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_seam_fire (at the end of the intro paragraphs)
- EamonnMR 8y agoConsidering that they're a pure nuisance with no economic value and plenty of danger due to area denial, and 3% is nothing to sneeze at, that would suggest that they should be a priority to greenhouse gas reduction.
- gambiting 8y agoLike with everything else, the question is always the same - who pays for it?
- krasin 8y agoOne can compare such permanent fires with a dragon that lives near a village and eats people from time to time. And every time, it takes a reward from a village chief to find a hero and kill the dragon. Why doesn't any of the states with coal fires offer a monetary prize to stop such fires? Put money on the table, and a hero (in a form of a robotic firefighting startup) will come.
- sandworm101 8y agoIt cannot be fixed with robots. Thousands of R2D2s running into mines with fire extinguishers wouldn't make a dent. These are fires spread throughout many square-miles, cubic-miles, of permeable rock. Quenching them must involve external containment. Massive concrete domes/walls surrounding the burning material. Then you must wait many many years for temperatures to cool. It is a multi-decade project imho.
- cpeterso 8y agoThe best time to start such a project would have been decades ago. The second best time is today. It could be a good jobs program and perhaps the concrete barriers could be built as functional structures for the local community?
- callalex 8y agoWe can't even get government funding for less CO2-heavy power plants, let alone putting out fires that don't directly harm anyone with an unknown success rate.
- honestoHeminway 8y agoHas anyone tried to do the cooling symstem approach? Aka, pump in water, frack, and cool the site down until the fire is non-substainable?
- krasin 8y agoLet's not overfocus on the word robot in my statement, as it was not the point I was making.