This morning’s papers confirm the government’s negotiations with China for the export of Australian uranium. Look more closely and you may also find a story about the anticipated death of 123 miners in a coal mine accident in China. But is anybody making the connection?

When
60 people are killed by terrorists in London it dominates the news for
a week. But twice that many casualties in China raises barely a ripple.
That’s how accustomed we’ve become to the appalling safety record of
the coal industry. China has already admitted to 2,700 deaths so far
this year; last year it was 6,300. An earlier story in The Australian reports that “the real figure could be far higher as mines often falsify death counts to escape closures and fines.”

China
has the worst safety record by far, though coal mining kills hundreds
of people every year in the rest of the world. And that’s without
counting the casualties from pollution, much less the greenhouse
effects.

There are serious non-proliferation concerns about
uranium exports to China (and to some other places as well). But for
the foreseeable future, expansion of baseload power generation for most
countries comes down to a choice between coal and nuclear energy. If
anti-nuclear campaigners want to be taken seriously, they need to face
up to the implications of continued reliance on coal. And spare a
thought for those 123 miners trapped 480m underground.