Coal mining: Impact on the biosphere

Black lung, buried streams and a third of fossil methane

What this tab covers Effects on human, animal, plant, fungal and microbial life and on whole ecosystems: in the short term (construction and early years), medium term (operating life) and long term (decommissioning and legacy).

Coal mining harms miners' lungs, buries streams and forests under mine waste, and releases methane; burning the coal then makes coal the deadliest major energy source per unit of electricity. Legacy effects (acid drainage, subsidence, lost forest) last decades to centuries.

Deaths per TWh of electricity (accidents and air pollution, whole coal chain) 24.62 (could be 93 to 224 at global rather than European rates)¹³ Black lung prevalence, Central Appalachian coal miners 20.6%¹⁴ Methane emitted by coal mining (2025) 43 Mt⁷ Forest cleared by mountaintop removal (Appalachia) 2,040 square miles⁹

Effects over time

Life affected	Short term	Medium term	Long term
Humans¹⁴⁹	Accidents from roof falls, gas explosions and machinery	Black lung (coal workers' pneumoconiosis): 20.6% of Central Appalachian miners show evidence of disease, and the severe form (progressive massive fibrosis) affects 5%; over 10% of US miners with 25+ years' tenure	Drinking water contaminated by mine runoff; dependence of mining towns on a declining industry
Animals⁹	Habitat lost when forest is cleared	Toxic chemicals released into streams harm fish and birds	Buried headwater streams are lost as habitat
Plants⁹	Forest cleared: 2,040 square miles in Appalachia from mountaintop removal	Reclaimed sites are often replanted as grassland rather than forest	Recovery of native forest takes decades or longer
Fungi and soil life⁹	Topsoil stripped and stockpiled or lost	Little evidence of effect quantified in our sources	Little evidence of effect quantified in our sources
Ecosystems⁹⁷	2,000 miles of Appalachian streams buried under valley fill	Methane from coal mines: 43 Mt a year, about a third of fossil-fuel methane (calculated from 43 of 124 Mt)	Climate change from methane and from burning the coal

How the effects are reduced

Dust controls, ventilation and medical surveillance reduce black lung, although prevalence among Central Appalachian miners reached a 25-year high in 2018. Methane can be drained before mining and used as fuel or flared; the IEA estimates that more than 35 Mt of fossil-fuel methane could be avoided at no net cost. Reclamation laws require surface mines to regrade and replant land, but restoring forests and buried streams is far harder. Scientists writing in Science in 2010 urged regulators to stop issuing new mountaintop removal permits unless new methods were shown, through peer review, to remedy the damage.

Sources

Global Methane Tracker 2026: Key findings International Energy Agency, 2026
Mountaintop mining consequences (Palmer et al., Science 327(5962): 148-149) Science (AAAS), 2010
What are the safest and cleanest sources of energy? Our World in Data, 2024
Prevalence of Black Lung Disease in Coal Miners Reaches 25-Year High (reporting NIOSH, American Journal of Public Health) American Industrial Hygiene Association, 2018