The Human Cost of Coal Mining in China | Xiaojun "Tom" Wang | TED

So in early April this year,

I went back to my hometown, Lüliang

in central China’s Shanxi Province,

for the tomb-sweeping day.

The tomb-sweeping day, literally,

it is a day when we go and clean the tombs

of our deceased beloved ones.

It is also a day when we go and ask for blessings from our ancestors.

And this year,

my sister became a new grandmother,

and she wanted to ask for blessings from our father

for her new grandson.

We had a hard time finding our father's tomb.

The roads leading into our village had wide cracks,

with signs telling people to stay away and beware of landslides.

Landslides in my usually dry hometown

used to be just a rare natural disaster.

Today, they are manmade, everyday threats

because our mountains are being hollowed out by coal mining.

And these are the very mountains where my father and my grandfather

and our ancestors are buried.

My name is Xiaojun Wang.

People who are familiar with Chinese language,

culture or history will immediately know I was born in the 1970s

because of the character “jun” in my name.

Jun means soldier,

and that, back then, was the best job in China.

And that was what my veteran grandfather had expected me to do:

to grow up and become a soldier, just like him.

I grew up, became a teacher, a journalist,

and then an environmental activist.

My work today focuses mostly on helping my village,

my province and China to move out of coal addiction,

regain our confidence

and build a new, clean living without coal.

Because I have witnessed how my village,

my province had been destroyed by coal mining and coal burning.

My province, over 40 percent, sits on top of coal and coal mining.

At its peak in the mid-1990s,

we had about 11,000 coal mines all over the province.

And even today, right now,

more than one million people work at various coal mines.

And that means one of every 30 people.

One of them was my cousin,

who also had the name or the character “jun” in his name.

So he shared the same expectations from our grandfather.

He grew up, became a coal miner.

Ten years ago, he was injured in a coal mine accident.

He got addicted to painkillers.

His liver was damaged.

And three years ago, he died.

He was younger than me.

And now today,

he's buried in the same mountains as our grandfather.

Even buried,

he’s still not free from coal-mine related accidents.

We have been told to remove or to relocate

our family graveyard.

By the end of this year,

we need to find new places for our deceased beloved ones.

My cousin, our fathers,

our grandfather,

our grandparents, our ancestors.

And that is the reality my province has been stuck in.

We are proudly,

ironically speaking,

the eldest coal brother for China.

We produce over one billion tons of coal every year.

So one billion tons of coal is dug out every year from underneath our mountains,

and most of that is sent to other provinces

and cities to support their economies.

This highly centralized coordination mechanism in China

is called the “sibling mechanism.”

We support 24 provinces and cities in China.

They rely on our coal for their heating,

their electricity, their industries,

almost everything.

And we are very proud to be that.

In mid-2021,

an energy crisis hit China.

So the parents in Beijing

asked Shanxi to keep digging

and to dig harder and faster.

And we, the eldest coal brother, Shanxi,

responded with earnest and pride.

Then in early October,

a very rare heavy rainstorm hit our usually dry province.

Almost 100 towns got flooded.

More landslides happened.

Over 120,000 people had to evacuate,

leaving behind their houses,

their crops,

their livestock,

to soak, to rot, to die

and to collapse in flood water.

At the same time, our governor held a press conference.

Not to ask Beijing for rescue or for help,

but to promise that we would keep digging

and to ensure the rest of the other 24 siblings

coal supply for the rest of the year.

Then, one month later, in November,

at COP26 in Glasgow,

the whole world, China included, promised and committed to a coal phasedown.

China had also made its domestic commitments

to reach carbon emission peak by 2030

and carbon neutrality by 2060.

The most effective ways to reach these goals or these targets

is to reduce the burning of coal.

So clearly, the direction for coal

has been very firmly set.

Coal has no future.

Many of the 24 provinces and cities,

who have been relying heavily on Shanxi coal, our coal,

are taking actions to move away from coal into a cleaner,

stronger economy that is mainly supported by renewable energy.

But.

Our province has been told to keep digging and to dig harder and faster,

because the parents in Beijing are still very concerned

about another energy crisis.

That is our reality.

That is the reality the eldest coal brother Shanxi has been stuck in.

Burning less coal is good news for the world.

Burning less coal is even good news for Shanxi.

Because the sooner all the other siblings start to reduce their reliance on coal,

the sooner can we start to climb out of coal mine shafts

and to look around, above the ground,

for other options and other solutions

in the sunlight,

in the open, clean air.

Above the ground,

we have the highest cluster of ancient buildings in China.

Over 75 percent of buildings

that are older than 1,000 years exist in my province.

The Forbidden City in Beijing

is only 600 years old.

(Laughter)

And even underneath the ground,

our real treasure is not coal.

We have ancient tombs

that are easily 500 years older

than the better-known terracotta warriors.

That is our real treasure.

That is our real pride.

Not many people outside Shanxi know about it, though.

In fact, not many people outside Shanxi know much about Shanxi other than coal.

We are the birthplace of China's agriculture and culture.

We are the birthplace of noodles and bread and wine.

We are the birthplace of Chinese language, poetry

and even the earliest banking system in China.

People outside Shanxi associate us with coal

because that's what we have been giving.

So fortunately, Shanxi Province,

our government, has been slowly waking up

and are taking actions to move away.

So things are changing, things are happening.

But Shanxi alone cannot do it.

We alone will not be able to break away from the vicious circle of cold reliance

or coal addiction.

Beijing and other sibling provinces need to step up

with their share and pay back.

Just like how our coal has been mobilized

to support all these provinces' economy and growth,

this mechanism, this sibling coordination mechanism in China,

needs to start today

and bring resources, clean resources,

back to us and towards us and help us.

In the past 45 years,

this mechanism has helped,

has worked very, very effectively

to bring all the technology and investments

from the richer coastal provinces in the east

to the poorer inland provinces in China.

It also very successfully helped China to end extreme poverty

for its 1.4 billion people back in 2021.

In the coming decades and years,

before 2030, before 2060,

this same sibling mechanism will be crucial for China as a whole,

as a big family, to achieve its dual carbon targets,

which is carbon emission peak by 2030

and carbon neutrality by 2060.

As I said, as a whole, as a big family,

that means Shanxi, my province, cannot be left behind,

stuck in coal mine shafts,

stuck in coal smog

and stuck in collapsed mountains.

Only with this policy coordination led by Beijing

and also financial and technical support from other sibling provinces

can we start to climb out of the coal mine shaft

and rebuild our new economy

by reviving our ancient history

for a more guaranteed future.

We have all these ancient buildings,

we have all this culture that are waiting to be woken up

to actually present and to share with the rest of the world.

This is how we can start to have a fair,

clean transition above the ground

without leaving our people behind jobless,

hopeless, helpless and futureless.

Because each gram of coal that we dig

will send all these ancient temples

and ancient tombs closer to collapsing.

Each gram of coal that we burn

will send more acid rain to the farmlands

and more coal dust to the fragile wooden temples.

We pray for hope when we go to these temples.

We pray for hope,

we pray for blessings from our ancestors

because we deserve a better future.

A clean, a safe, a healthy future

for my sister's new grandson.

And at the same time, our deceased beloved ones,

my cousin, our fathers,

our grandparents, our ancestors,

also deserve a safe future.

They deserve to rest in real peace

without having the fear to be relocated in their graveyard.

So that's my story.

Thank you so very much.

(Applause)