A Corollary To The Colliery Tragedy

Question of the day: Why, at the dawn of the 21st century, are we still ordering men down gaping scars on the earth's surface to extract a gritty black mass that when pulverized and then touched by fire releases smoke and can make a wheel turn?  Can't we do better than relying on a technology that is currently over 150 years old for most of our electricity needs?  Or if we insist on continuing to use coal, don't we have robots that we can send to extract it?  Or at least have robots dig and augur the tunnels that men go down so that we don't lose anyone else to mine collapses like the one currently plaguing Utah?  Why can't the mining industry make these advancements?  Or why can't we just get rid of the mining industry altogether?  I realize that I have now posed more than just one question of the day, but someone has to ask these questions.  Can't we do better?

Comments

[~R.]

Indeed.

[Lee]

Well Mr. Bissett the US mining industry is actually pretty advanced in the equipment they use especially in comparison to other countries, i.e. China. Some of the sensors my company makes are used on mining equipment but the advanced mining equipment is very expensive and not used everywhere. It is still more economincal for companies to put people in danger then to pay for technology. Plus no matter how advanced we get it only takes one accident and major media coverage for everyone to assume its an epidemic. Case and Point - Why didn't you blog about it when China had their mine collapse and killed orders of magnitude more miners?