Friday, April 22, 2022
Learn to coal mine
 As CNN+ -- a journalistic tradition for three weeks ago now -- prepares to fold, other journalists are attacking anyone who dares to enjoy seeing the collapse of a project by a multinational corporation that attacks American values.
CNN admitted in 2003 that its Baghdad bureau served primarily as a PR shop for Saddam Hussein.
Sam Stein of Politico and MSNBC tweeted, "Cheering the failure of CNN+, however you feel about the idea behind it, is gross. Lots of people are losing their jobs. The high-priced hosts will be fine, but folks who are just trying to make a living in an industry that already pays shit wages… this sucks for them."
They chose to work for shit wages. The shit wages reflect the value of their efforts in society.
These workers are the victims of poor management, which could not make a buck despite having found 150,000 people willing to shell out $5.99 a month for CNN+. That's $10.8 million a year in revenue. Of course when you spend $100 million to launch the enterprise, you have already blown a decade of revenue in one month.
There is no shortage of journalists in America. Everyone seems to have a podcast or a blog now.
The shortage we have is among coal miners. We lack men willing to learn how to safely go underground and remove coal from deposits buried thousands of years ago. We also lack men willing to learn how to safely remove coal from surface mines.
A couple of years ago, Joe Biden said coal miners should learn to code. Biden said, “Anybody who can go down 3,000 feet in a mine can sure as hell learn to program as well… Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for God’s sake!”
As usual, he was wrong. We have plenty of coders. We lack coal miners.
Bloomberg reported in October, "Just when the world is clamoring for more coal, U.S. suppliers are facing a shortage of miners.
"The number of coal miners in the U.S. has been sliding for years, and is down about 8.6% from before the pandemic. People who have left are reluctant to come back and young people are even more wary about taking a job in an industry that they’ve consistently been told has no future given the global push toward clean energy."
The jobs are not confined to Appalachia.
23 states mine coal. The top 5 are, in order, Wyoming, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Illinois and North Dakota.
While coal plants are shuttering in the United States, Red China and India are building them as fast as they can. They are running out of coal.
The Hindu in India reported, "70% of India’s power demand is met by coal-fired power plants.
"As per the latest data, coal stocks at more than 100 thermal power plants in India have fallen below 25% of the required stock (critical mark). In more than 50 thermal plants, the stock has fallen below the 10% mark, leading to States seeking additional coal supplies from India’s sole coal producer Coal India Ltd (CIL). Seventy per cent of India’s power demand is met by thermal power plants, which are mostly powered by coal.
"Central Electricity Authority (CEA) data shows that as of April 19, 2022, India’s power generation via thermal plants using domestic coal stood at 182.39 GW with an average of 34% coal stock in them. Meanwhile, 16.73 GW was generated by power plants using imported coal with an average coal stock of 34%. Nine thermal plants with the capacity to generate 3.56 GW are currently non-functional.
"Of the 173 thermal power plants, 85 plants fired by domestic coal have less than 25% stock while 11 plants running on imported coal have hit critical levels."
With the summer air-conditioning upon us, the last thing India needs are rolling blackouts.
And the last thing America needs are more journalists. We are full up now. There is an over abundance of them.
What we need are 20,000 or so more coal miners.
Learn to coal mine is not a putdown.
Learn to coal mine is a cry for help. Learn to coal mine, journos. King Coal needs you. |
