 |
         
|
"The job of finding these men is proving to be much more difficult than anyone first imagined," ABC's Neal Karlinsky (subscription required) commented. During the first day of work to clear nearly 2,000 feet of collapsed tunnel, NBC's Jennifer London found that 310 feet of progress had been made. CBS' John Blackstone reported an attempt to reach the miners through a parallel tunnel: it "failed because it was too unstable. Rescue workers had to flee." A two-inch wide vertical shaft is being drilled for communication, food and water but the horizontal rescue tunnel, Blackstone predicted, will take three days to complete. In the meantime ABC's Karlinsky described a military sonar system that has been installed to detect signs of life: the missing men are trained to listen for the signal of three controled blasts and then to pound on the roof. It is that pounding that the sonar will scan for.
Mineowner Murray was treated with utmost skepticism when he insisted that his trapped workers were not using the retreat mining technique that intentionally collapses ceilings and that the cave-in was caused by an earthquake. NBC's London called Murray's attitude "adamant" and ABC's Karlinsky quoted him as calling those who contradict his earthquake explanation "flatout wrong." However, the seismologists all three networks consulted offered a contrary opinion: "no evidence of a prior quake"--ABC's Karlinsky; "what shook these mountains was the mine collapsing"--CBS' Blackstone; "the collapse itself caused the quake"--NBC's London.
Coalminers continue to risk their lives because national energy policy depends on coal more than any other source for power. ABC's David Kerley told us that there are now 84,000 miners at work; coal accounts for 50% of all electricity generation; each day 20lbs per person of coal is burned. Kerley outlined the benefits of using coal--it is inexpensive with plentiful domestic supplies--and its downside: it can not only be unsafe for miners, it is also "a dirty energy source. Although many of its pollutants are now being scrubbed out, it is still high in carbon" He quoted Jeff Goodell author of Big Coal: "Clean coal is something like fat-free doughnuts. It is something that we would all like to believe in and sounds good but in fact is just a kind of advertising slogan."
You must be logged in to this website to leave a comment. Please click here to log in so you can participate in the discussion.
