Energy accidents
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Energy resources bring with them great social and economic promise, providing financial growth for communities and energy services for local economies. However, the infrastructure which delivers energy services can break down in an energy accident, sometimes causing much damage, and energy fatalities can occur, and with many systems often deaths will happen even when the systems are working as intended.
Historically, coal mining has been the most dangerous energy activity and the list of historical coal mining disasters is a long one. Underground mining hazards include suffocation, gas poisoning, roof collapse and gas explosions. Open cut mining hazards are principally mine wall failures and vehicle collisions. In the US alone, more than 100,000 coal miners have been killed in accidents over the past century, with more than 3,200 dying in 1907 alone.
According to Benjamin K. Sovacool, 279 major energy accidents occurred from 1907 to 2007 and they caused 182,156 deaths with $41 billion in property damages, with these figures not including deaths from smaller accidents.
However, by far the greatest energy fatalities that result from energy generation by humanity, is the creation of air pollution. The most lethal of which, particulate matter, which is primarily generated from the burning of fossil fuels and biomass is (counting outdoor air pollution effects only) estimated to cause 2.1 million deaths annually.
See also
- Coal seam fires burn for decades and are virtually inextinguishable
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- Dam failure
- List of accidents and disasters by death toll
- List of coal mining accidents in China
- List of environmental accidents in the fossil fuel industry in Australia
- List of hydroelectric power station failures
- List of oil spills
- Lists of disasters
- Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents
- U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board
Specific events
- Deepwater Horizon oil spill and natural gas explosion of 2010
- Effects of the Chernobyl disaster
- Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
- Great Smog of London, up to 12,000 people died in 1952
- Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill December 2008