Strip mining eating up more land for less coal recently - Entrepreneur Generations

Surface mining needs more land to produce less coal than in years past, according to a study from Duke University featuring a new mapping tool.

"Researchers estimate that between 1985 and 2015, an average of 21,000 acres was converted to bare earth and rubble in central Appalachia each year -- an area about half the size of Washington, D.C.," according to the study. "This analysis places the total estimate since the 1970s at about 1.5 million acres. "That is an area 18 percent larger than the state of Delaware, and only 3 percent smaller than Everglades National Park," said first author Andrew Pericak, who conducted the research in the lab of biology professor Emily Bernhardt at Duke University.

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from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2LUSUcU Strip mining eating up more land for less coal recently - Entrepreneur Generations

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