The CSM mine is part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, a region straddling the Czech-Polish border with a 250-year history of mining because of its rich coal deposits and factories that produce steel and energy.
With just the light of a headlamp, workers — their bodies and clothes covered in soot and dust — effortlessly navigate the mines, drilling the deposits underground. Others load cars to take the rocks to the surface, where huge piles of it lie ready to be transported to power plants.
The work comes with a price: A 2021 study of more than 800 European cities by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health puts the regional capital of Ostrava and the nearby towns where the mine is located among the top 10 most polluted European cities.
And when burned for energy, coal contributes to the carbon dioxide emissions warming up the…
