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July 09, 2004
Beautiful black lungs
I realized that my little brother had never seen real coal before July 5th, 2004. That's when he asked me what the big black mound was that lay near the middle of the yard that houses my grandfather's apartment (if I forgot to mention this earlier, he's moving into a new one later this year and the entire yard will be torn down for a new development - probably a shopping center of some sort). Coal has a vital history in China - it is among China's most abundant natural resources, the source of many of its industrial deaths (miners) and also the source of some 90% of its electricity. The coal that my brother chanced upon powers the plant that provides hot water and heat to the yard... it is as delapidated as everything else in sight:
Posted by rxu at July 9, 2004 12:35 AM