1 / 21

Understanding Coal Mining and Electricity Production: Environmental and Health Impacts

This detailed exploration delves into the coal mining industry, highlighting significant concerns such as the environmental devastation from practices like mountaintop removal, which has leveled over 500 mountains in West Virginia and destroyed 1.2 million acres of hardwood forest. It also discusses mining-related health risks, including black lung disease. The process of electricity generation from coal and natural gas is explained, along with the pollution produced by power plants. Assessing these processes raises important questions regarding sustainability and environmental impact.

cadman-hodges
Télécharger la présentation

Understanding Coal Mining and Electricity Production: Environmental and Health Impacts

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Time to put your thinking cap on! • Please read the entire board. • Please get out objectives #16-19 for a stamp

  2. Coal Formation –

  3. Mountain top removal map • 500+ mountains leveled in West Virginia • 1.2 million acres of hardwood forest destroyed • Overburden (rocks, soil) is dumped into river valleys, causing more habitat loss.

  4. Subsurface mining

  5. Risks – black lung disease, mine collapse, explosions from leaking methane

  6. Surface mine/strip mine(Coal mine in Canada)

  7. Kimberly Big Hole, South Africa • a diamond mine over 1,097 meters deep. The mine was closed in 1914 but was later reopened as a tourist attraction.

  8. Mirny Diamon Mine Serbia • The mine itself is over 525 meters deep and more than 125 kilometers in diameter. The hole is so wide and so deep it is believed to cause a suction effect, which has caused several aircraft accidents in the area. The Mirny Diamond Mine is now considered a no fly zone!

  9. Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah • this is supposedly the largest man-made excavation on earth. extraction began in 1863 and still continues today, the pit increasing in size constantly. in its current state the hole is 3/4 mile deep and 2.5 miles wide.

  10. So where does your electricity come from?

  11. W.A. Parrish power plant

  12. How is electricity made? • Coal/natural gas – fuel which is burned • Furnace – place fuel is burned to turn water to steam • Turbine – steam makes this spin which is connected to generator • Generator – makes electricity sent to your home

  13. Electricity is taking one form of energy and making it into a different form that we can use!

  14. Forms of energy Kinetic Potential • Position • Chemical Bonds • Heat • Motion • Light • Electricity

  15. Power plants are point sources of pollution • Major air pollutants: • CO2, SOx, NOx, particulates, Mercury

  16. Natural gas vs. coal • 2007 – coal provided 50% of US electricity. • 2011 – coal provided 34% of US electricity. • WHY?

  17. Check for understanding! • 1. What are the environmental effects of coal mining? • 2. Explain how a power plant makes electricity. • 3. What type of fuel does our power plant use? • 4. Where is our power plant? • 5. How is coal formation different from the formation of oil and natural gas? • 6. Why is our power plant a “point source” of pollution? • 7. Name three kinds of air pollution created by our power plant.

  18. Coal– dig it!

More Related