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The environmental price tag on a ton of mountaintop removal coal.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Lutz, BD; Bernhardt, ES; Schlesinger, WH
Published in: PloS one
January 2013

While several thousand square kilometers of land area have been subject to surface mining in the Central Appalachians, no reliable estimate exists for how much coal is produced per unit landscape disturbance. We provide this estimate using regional satellite-derived mine delineations and historical county-level coal production data for the period 1985-2005, and further relate the aerial extent of mining disturbance to stream impairment and loss of ecosystem carbon sequestration potential. To meet current US coal demands, an area the size of Washington DC would need to be mined every 81 days. A one-year supply of coal would result in ∼2,300 km of stream impairment and a loss of ecosystem carbon sequestration capacity comparable to the global warming potential of >33,000 US homes. For the first time, the environmental impacts of surface coal mining can be directly scaled with coal production rates.

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Published In

PloS one

DOI

EISSN

1932-6203

ISSN

1932-6203

Publication Date

January 2013

Volume

8

Issue

9

Start / End Page

e73203

Related Subject Headings

  • Trees
  • Soil
  • Rivers
  • Kentucky
  • Humans
  • Geography
  • General Science & Technology
  • Environment
  • Ecosystem
  • Coal Mining
 

Citation

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Lutz, B. D., Bernhardt, E. S., & Schlesinger, W. H. (2013). The environmental price tag on a ton of mountaintop removal coal. PloS One, 8(9), e73203. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073203
Lutz, Brian D., Emily S. Bernhardt, and William H. Schlesinger. “The environmental price tag on a ton of mountaintop removal coal.PloS One 8, no. 9 (January 2013): e73203. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073203.
Lutz BD, Bernhardt ES, Schlesinger WH. The environmental price tag on a ton of mountaintop removal coal. PloS one. 2013 Jan;8(9):e73203.
Lutz, Brian D., et al. “The environmental price tag on a ton of mountaintop removal coal.PloS One, vol. 8, no. 9, Jan. 2013, p. e73203. Epmc, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0073203.
Lutz BD, Bernhardt ES, Schlesinger WH. The environmental price tag on a ton of mountaintop removal coal. PloS one. 2013 Jan;8(9):e73203.

Published In

PloS one

DOI

EISSN

1932-6203

ISSN

1932-6203

Publication Date

January 2013

Volume

8

Issue

9

Start / End Page

e73203

Related Subject Headings

  • Trees
  • Soil
  • Rivers
  • Kentucky
  • Humans
  • Geography
  • General Science & Technology
  • Environment
  • Ecosystem
  • Coal Mining