The world’s longest burning fires: China's unseen story | Audrey Wozniak - China Dialogue

The world's longest burning fires: China's unseen story - China Dialogue Audrey Wozniak | They are monstrous, centuries-old infernos that issue thick billows of ash and smoke, and generate sinkholes that consume roads and homes without warning. Yet in spite of the dangers they pose, underground coal fires are some of the least known environmental disasters. China, the world's largest miner and consumer of coal, has consistently downplayed the fires in its coalfields, considered the most severe on earth. ..."Every country that is coal-producing has coal fires," says Anupma Prakash, a geologist at the University of Alaska who has conducted extensive research on coal fires. So it comes as no surprise that China, which accounted for 49.5% of last year's global coal production, also has the world's worst coal fires. Hundreds of fires proliferate the nearly 3,000-mile coal belt running across north China.