A Bird's-eye View of Coal's Other Collateral Damages

Slashing our dependence on coal for power is no small goal. But if we can pull it off, we can gain a lot, in addition to cutting our globe-heating carbon dioxide pollution: restored soil and forests, cleaner air and water.

This aerial view of open pit lignite (brown coal) mines Tuzla Basin in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina shows off some of coal's collateral damages on the environment. "Several large mines and their associated debris (tailings) are scattered across the image. Four large open pit mines appear in a clockwise arrangement starting southeast of Tuzla: Dubrave, Djurdjevik, Mrdici and Banovici, all of which produce brown coal," writes Amer Smailbegovic for the NASA Earth Observatory.

At the upper left corner of the image is the Kreka strip mine, which produces lignite. East of the inactive Ontario Strip Mine, lavender-colored patches are fly-ash deposits—the residue left over from coal burning at the Tuzla power plant.

The transition from underground mines to more profitable large-scale surface mines has led to soil degradation, dramatic changes to terrain, and water and air pollution. Scientists at the University of Tuzla have estimated that open pit mining has degraded at least 20,000 hectares (about 50,000 acres) of land in the country, with the majority of the damage occurring in the Tuzla Basin. Remediating some of the worst pollution hotspots in the Tuzla Basin is part of a new agreement among cities and local industry to make industrial activities in the area more environmentally sustainable.