Earlier this week, BP released the annual "Review of World Energy Statistics" report. According to the report, coal was the world's fastest-growing fossil fuel last year, and "coal's share of global primary energy consumption reached 30.1%, the highest level since 1970." Although coal use in North America and Europe has decreased in the past few years (mainly due to cheap natural gas prices), global coal consumption has risen to new highs driven by the growing and power-hungry markets in China and India. And, as expected, global carbon emissions increased by 2.1% again last year. Although the scientific community increasingly urgently needs to reduce carbon emissions to prevent climate disasters, and the use of renewable energy is small but increasing, coal seems to be the fuel of choice at present, and its use is predicted to continue to rise.

On May 20, 2014, in a coal mine outside of Donetsk, Ukraine, a Ukrainian coal miner waits for a bus after completing his shift. Although coal consumption in Europe and North America has declined in recent years, coal consumption in Asia has risen sharply. #

On August 20, 2010, near Drebkau, Germany, the bucket wheel of a giant excavator cleared the first layer of soil and used it to expand the nearby Welzow open-pit lignite coal mine. The areas of northern Saxony and southern Brandenburg are full of active and former mines, and a large-scale project is underway to flood the huge mine pit and turn it into a tourist lake. #

Excavator works at an open-pit coal mine near Grevenbroich, Germany, view it on Google Earth. #

On August 23, 2012, Indian workers loaded coal into trucks at a coal storage on the outskirts of Jammu, India. #

In 2007, the Xi'an Coking Plant in Shaanxi Province, China, was closed in a campaign to reduce air pollution, and coke was produced in the coke oven in which the plant was operating. The factory emits about 300 million cubic meters of waste gas each year. #

A worker walks on a railroad track at a coking plant in Changzhi City, Shanxi Province on August 28, 2009. #

On October 17, 2009, during a climate change protest at the Ratcliffe Power Station in Ratcliffe-on-Soar in central England, a security guard watched by a coal pile. #

The explosives detonated on April 16, 2012 during an open-pit mining operation at A & G Coal Corporation in the Appalachian Mountains in Wise County, Virginia. Critics refer to this type of mining as "mountain-clearing mining," which destroyed 500 mountains and at least 1,200 miles of streams, and caused increased flooding. #

Demolition mining on the top of a mountain near Chavez, Kentucky, viewed on Google Earth. #

On January 15, 2013, a miner holds a piece of coal outside an unregulated coal mine in Sabinas, Mexico. Every day, thousands of miners go to work in unregulated coal mines in northern Mexico, knowing that they may not return. For these people, facing death every day has become a fact of life, because they struggle to make a living in an environment where there are no rules and regulations, or even the most basic equipment. #

In this photo taken on January 29, 2013, Indian coal miner Surya Limu (inside the cave) squatted by the fireplace with other miners to keep warm a few hours before dawn in a 50-meter-deep building in the village of Rymbai in Northeastern State. Meghalaya, India in the shaft face. #

On April 13, 2011, near Latyrke Village near Lad Rymbai in Jaintia Hills District, India, a crane lifted miners out of a 300-foot-deep mine. On Jaintia Mountain in Megaraya State in the Far East of India, miners dive deep on slippery, rickety wooden ladders. #

On April 13, 2011, 22-year-old Shyam Rai from Nepal stopped while working, digging for coal, and digging out a coal seam 300 feet below the surface with his hand and a pickaxe, April 13, 2011, Jaintia, India Mountains. In thousands of privately owned and unregulated mines, children and adults squeeze into mouse holes like tunnels, mining coal with their hands or primitive tools, without safety equipment. Workers can earn up to US$150 per week or 30,000 rupees per month, which is significantly higher than the national average of US$15 per day. #

On April 16, 2011, 38-year-old Prabhat Sinha from Assam, carrying 60 kilograms of coal, supported by a headband, climbed the coal mine stairs near the village of Khliehriat in India. After crossing steep mountain roads, coal was transported to neighboring Bangladesh and Assam, and from there to various parts of India, mainly used for power generation and fuel sources for cement plants. #

After a miner came out of a deep coal mine near the village of Rimbay in Meghalaya State in northeastern India, he bent over and emptied a wooden box. The basket tied to his back was filled with about 60-70 kg of wet coal. . Accidents and quiet burials are commonplace, and years of uncontrolled drilling have made mines unstable and may collapse at any time. #

On November 15, 2012, a train was loaded with coal at the Borodinsky open-pit coal mine, near the Siberian town of Borodino, about 152 kilometers (94 miles) east of Krasnoyarsk. The Borodinsky Coal Mine is Russia’s largest open-pit coal mine-7 kilometers (4 miles) long and 100 meters (328 feet) deep-built by Gulag prisoners from 1945 to 1949 and now produces about 20 million tons of coal each year. #

On September 23, 2009, a train transports coal at the Borodinsky open-pit coal mine near the town of Borodino in Siberia. #

On May 10, 1998, 31 coal trucks were destroyed after a house derailed and crashed into a house near Baltimore, Ohio. Shortly before the Conrail coal train derailed and hit their house, a couple and their dog escaped and hit the house six feet away from its foundation. #

On August 20, 2010, near Drebkau, Germany, a bucket wheel excavator was removing the first layer of soil for the expansion of the nearby Welzow open-pit lignite coal mine. #

On April 4, 2013, a truck carrying 250 tons of coal transported the fuel to the surface of the Spring Creek mine near Decker, Montana, to customers in Asia. #

On January 25, 2013, near Dejzen, Germany, a bucket excavator in the snow-covered Vereinigtes Schleenhain open-pit coal mine was illuminated. The mine is operated by Mibrag and is one of several coal mines in eastern Germany that produce lignite for local power generation. #

This aerial photo shows the United Bulk Terminal in Deventer, Louisiana on February 18, 2014. Three environmental organizations have claimed in a federal lawsuit that a coal terminal south of New Orleans is polluting the Mississippi River. #

A view of the Boxberg lignite power station and the Nochten open-pit lignite (lignite) mine (below) taken on January 14, 2011. The plant is operated by Swedish energy giant Vattenfall. #

On March 28, 2009, mine operator Dallen McFarland inspects the teeth of a continuous mining machine at the Horizon Coal Mine outside Helper, Utah. #

On November 7, 2007, a coal mine worker smokes a cigarette after get off work in a coal mine on the outskirts of Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, northern China. #

On February 11, 2012, in Guhanwadi village near Jharia, India, a boy looked at an open-pit coal mine and saw the hot embers of an underground coal fire. Villagers in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand illegally mine coal from open-pit mines every day, earning a few dollars. Claiming that decades-old underground coal seams threaten the homes of villagers, the government relocated more than 2,300 families to towns like Belgium. The villagers claimed that they received two years of promises for schools, hospitals and free public utilities, but they did not receive them. #

On April 29, 2014, coal miners in Choa Saidan Shah, Punjab, Pakistan, used donkeys to transport coal from the depths of the mine into the narrow tunnel of the coal mine. surface. These donkeys carry sacks weighing approximately 20 kg (44 lbs) for about 20 trips a day. This work is very dangerous, and there is often a risk of collapse. The miners said that they did their best to take care of these animals with limited resources, but the conditions were difficult, which meant that the life expectancy of donkeys was 12-13 years. #

On November 30, 2009, the coal-fired Cottam power station in Retford, Nottinghamshire, England, generated electricity. #

In the early morning of March 20, 2007, the Ulyanovskaya mine near Novokuznetsk, Russia. #

On January 30, 2013, a worker transported briquettes onto a tricycle in a coal distribution company in Huaibei City, Anhui Province, central China. Environmental issues—especially the use of coal—have been pushed to the top of the agenda. The country was covered by pollution in early 2013. #

On October 27, 2009, on the outskirts of Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, a worker searches for available coal at a cinder yard. #

On May 19, 2009, a coal miner took a bath after get off work in a mine on the outskirts of Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, China. #

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Hindu festivals in Bangladesh, snowfall in northern China, battles in Yemen, plane crashes in Brazil, pelican gatherings in Israel, bonfire nights in the United Kingdom, etc.

Finally, take a look at the colorful beauty of this autumn, across the northern hemisphere

A picture of an 11-foot-tall puppet depicting a Syrian refugee girl who has traveled 5,000 miles in recent months

Diwali celebrations in India, pond walks in Belgium, glaciers in Argentina, anti-government protests in Bangkok, foggy sunrises in San Francisco, etc.

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