Results tagged “coal”

• Shell to Delay Alternative Energy Projects in China [WSJ] "Royal Dutch Shell PLC is delaying or dropping some alternative energy projects in China as too costly given current low oil prices, executives said Tuesday... because of the economic downturn Shell decided to postpone a joint venture Shenhua Group, China's top coal producer to turn coal into liquid fuel. Shell had conducted a feasibility study with Shenhua, China's biggest coal producer, to build a coal-to-liquid plant in the country's western Ningxia Autonomous Region."
• Chinese workers protest again over unpaid wages [AP] "Hundreds of workers at a textile factory in southern China blocked roads Tuesday, in a second day of protests over unpaid wages, an employee said. The protests come as a collapse in demand for Chinese exports has closed factories and wiped out at least 20 million jobs. Communist leaders worry that more job losses and unpaid wages could result in mass protests."
• Rare Fungi Sent Back to China [Cornell Sun] "In the 1920s, Shu Chun Teng was China’s premier expert on fungi after studying mycology at Cornell. To preserve Teng’s specimens from destruction following the 1937 Japanese invasion of China, 2,278 of the specimen packets were smuggled by ox cart to Indochina and then by sea to the United States, eventually arriving at Cornell in 1940" It is now being returned to China. Hoorah!

A new report commissioned by Greenpeace, the Energy Foundation and the WWF estimates that the environmental and social costs of China's coal usage hit RMB1.7 trillion last year, or about 7.1% of the country's GDP. Speaking on the report, Yang Ailun, Greenpeace's climate and energy campaign manager, urged the government to recognize “the true cost of coal [and] create incentives to develop cleaner, sustainable energy sources."

As part of their "Toxic series" VBS TV took a trip to the "world's most polluted town", Linfen, in China's Shanxi province. In six episodes David Feinberg reports on a city that is experiencing the dark side of China's economic boom, in the form of massive pollution.

Meanwhile, the Chinese have reduced exports by over eight percent, idled more than 60 coal plants and announced they will lower import tariffs on the commodity, all because of shortages. It’s more than foreign competition and transport prices the country has to worry about — energy supplies within the PRC are dwindling to dangerous lows. We in Shanghai got a taste of what such scarcity might mean when blackouts struck the scorched city earlier this month.

36 coal miners are still trapped after a mine flooded at about 3.30pm yesterday at the Nadu Mine in the Guangxi region. Rescuers have since saved 13 people after 10 hours and 12 of the 36 still trapped are in contact with rescuers and are in safe places within the mine. These miners are reported to be about 2km from the mouth of the mine and rescuers are struggling to get water and food to them as they continue rescue efforts.