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Climate revenge: Global warming has ruined the livelihoods of coal miners - Walla! Business

2020-09-05T13:15:17.989Z


The last activated coal mine in the area near the North Pole was flooded with water, which comes from ice that melted following the climate crisis. Residents of the area are now facing the economic consequences


  • Business

Climate Revenge: Warming has ruined the livelihoods of coal miners

The last activated coal mine in the area near the North Pole was flooded with water, which comes from ice that melted following the climate crisis.

Residents of the area are now facing the economic consequences

Tags

  • Glaciers

  • Norway

  • coal

Nogaat Cohen Dog, Angle

Friday, 04 September 2020, 01:52

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In the video: The melting glacier flooded the coal mine (angle)

21 degrees Celsius does not sound like something out of the ordinary.

This can be a very pleasant spring day temperature.

Great for a walk in nature, or for exercise in the park, but when this temperature is measured in the Svalbard archipelago, not far from the North Pole, it is a sign that something unusual is happening.



Indeed, on July 29, 2020, the Svalbard Archipelago measured a temperature of 21.7 degrees Celsius.

The highest temperature in the area since July 1979 was then measured at 21.3 degrees Celsius.

In Svalard, which is under Norwegian sovereignty, temperatures above the perennial average have been measured for more than 100 months in a row, and since the 1970s the average annual temperature has risen by 4 degrees Celsius, when only in the winter season has an average rise of 7 degrees Celsius since.



Coal mines have operated in this area for about 100 years under the sovereignty of Norway and Russia.

In 2017, Norway decided to close all mines under its control.

It was a significant step in a series of actions that the Norwegian government has been implementing in recent years to stop the use of fossil fuels, including the decision to stop its oil drilling.

The idea behind the withdrawal of fossil fuels (oil, coal and natural gas) is of course to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that accelerate and exacerbate the climate crisis.

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Of the many mines active in the Sabablard Archipelago, only one mine remains open, mine number 7. This mine, located about 15 kilometers from the town of Longyearbein, supplies 30,000 tons of coal a year for domestic use and another 80,000 tons for export for chemical and metal industries in other European countries. .

The mine is located at the foot of a glacier-covered mountain, which has begun to thaw in recent years due to the gradual rise in temperature in the area.

The relatively high temperatures are causing the soil and ice to thaw and in July 2020, the water that seeped from the glacier onto the mountain into the ground flooded the mine.

The initial assumption of the mine managers was that they would return to work by August, but now the mine management has announced that water intrusion is even more severe than initially thought and the mine will remain closed for longer.



The irony here is very great.

Nature seems to be returning to war with the weapons man has provided him: after a hundred years of mining and coal production, the main source in the area for air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, came the flood that closed mine number 7.

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Are more affected by climate change

Norway's national program encourages local residents to abandon coal mining and specialize in tourism

Unfortunately, not only is the mine in trouble, in the nearby town of Longyearbein, where 2,500 people live, the thaw of the permafrost (frozen to, in Hebrew - frozen soil layer for thousands of years and even more) caused 250 households to relocate.



"The Arctic is affected more and more than most regions of the world by climate change," said Dr. Daniel Madar, a researcher and scientific consultant on alternative energies and climate change. "The land that has been frozen for many years is beginning to thaw, and countries like Norway, Russia and the United States are still under Trump." "Thinking about producing more fossil fuels in the Arctic to strengthen their political control over the region and increase state coffers."



Although the Svalbard Archipelago suffers from climate change effects (directly related to coal use), many Norwegians do not want to close the coal mines. This harms their culture and heritage and others, such as Pierre Erna Totland, a Norwegian economist, argue that the costs of closing the coal mines are higher than continuing to operate them. Totland says the closure and cleaning of the mines will cost the country up to $ 100 million while further mining increases revenues. state.



"it is hoped that the recognition of the risk of establishing new facilities that can collapse under the melting and the ground unstable, or suffer flooding as in the present case, will grow up wanting to enrich their funds various countries and funding that will be stopped," says Mader.



So from

What will happen to the residents of the area who are employed in the coal mines?

A national program of the Norwegian government encourages local residents to abandon the field of coal mining and specialize in tourism.

The area is home to a large polar bear colony and there is a demand for tourists as well as researchers to visit the area.



And if not tourism, coal miners will be able to make a switch to producing renewable and clean energy.

A new study by the Norwegian University of Bergen, published in early 2020, presents a model for producing renewable energy in the region, mainly through wind energy and local hydrogen production or imports.

The researchers examined the Svalbard area's average winds per day in 2017-2015, in order to test whether the renewable energies that exist and are currently operated by Norway can produce the same amount of electricity produced using coal at the same time.



The findings of the study showed that renewable energy sources can indeed replace electricity generation using coal in Svalbard.

The researchers recommended a model based primarily on electricity generation from renewable energy sources using wind as well as importing hydrogen produced using renewable energy sources (such as from geothermal, hydroelectric, and solar sources) from other areas in Norway.

According to the researchers, a combination of these two sources will ensure a lower cost-benefit ratio than that of a coal-based energy economy, and will achieve a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that accelerate the climate crisis.

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Coal in Israel

And what about Israel? We, as we know, have no coal deposits, it is imported mainly from Australia, South Africa, Colombia and Russia. The coal is transported to the coal-fired power plants in Ashkelon and Hadera and is used to generate electricity. In early July 2020, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz announced an examination of raising the electricity generation target from renewable energies, from 17 percent to 30 percent, by the end of 2030. "This is a very realistic target, and it is still not enough," says Madar. "Although the government is still examining the outline, it will not be a problem to meet the target on the day it is launched. Apparently, after a decade of crawling in promoting renewable energies, in the last three years Israel has tripled renewable energy production, thanks to favorable regulation, capital flow, "However, the real ambition should be to increase the volume of renewable energy production to 50 percent of electricity production by 2030, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly."



"Electricity production is responsible for about 48 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in Israel. If we achieve 30 percent of renewable energy from all electricity production by 2030, we will be able to reduce only about 14 percent of all our greenhouse gas emissions. This rate does not come close to 50 percent of all emissions. Greenhouse gases required by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) by 2030. Therefore, emissions should be reduced in all areas, from electricity generation, through industry, transportation and agriculture.Only 30 percent of renewable energy from total electricity generation by 2030, that is Too little and too late. "



The article was prepared by "Angle - The News Agency of the Israeli Association of Ecology and Environmental Sciences".

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Source: walla

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