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Coal mining in Brazil is the country's largest source of non-renewable energy, and is an important part of Brazil's energy economy. Brazil is the tenth largest energy consumer and the third largest in the Western Hemisphere, Coal accounts for approximately 5.8 percent of the country’s total primary energy supply. It is the country’s largest source of non-renewable energy (50 percent), followed by nuclear energy (27 percent), petroleum (eight percent), and natural gas (2.5 percent). Brazil produces about 6 million tons of coal per year, and total coal reserves are estimated at approximately 32.3 billion tons. It is also important in reducing reliance on imported oil and gas.〔(【引用サイトリンク】work=Global Methane Initiative )〕〔Glauser, et al. 2005〕〔Zancan 2002〕 Brazil's coal-mining region is located in the southern part of the country, and the reserves are distributed among the states of Paraná (1 percent), Santa Catarina (46 percent), and Rio Grande do Sul (53 percent). The southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul has majority of the coal reserves, but Santa Catarina is the largest producer of coal. The total Brazilian coal production in 2007 was 12,144,564 short tons, with the state of Santa Catarina producing 7,228,895 of those. The coal mining industry is of tremendous importance to these regions given the rapid expansion of Brazil’s national economy. It is also important in reducing reliance on hydropower from other regions. While the coal mining industry helped spur the regional economies in southern Brazil, in turn impacting their respective societies, but this has come at a high price. Severe environmental degradation has resulted from poor mining practices, improper waste disposal, poor regulation, and lack of research. In the state of Santa Catarina alone, 3.5 million tons of coal are rejected annually and disposed of in landfills. This is more than half of Brazil’s total annual coal extraction. The environmental problems have also translated into adverse effects for the mineworkers and those living in surrounding areas. A number of health, social, economic, and political concerns have arisen as a result of the mining industry. The Brazilian federal government even declared the state of Santa Catarina a site of environmental concern.〔Silva, Izquierdo, et al.: 2010〕 ==History== Coal was discovered in the southern region of Brazil in 1822, and in the city of Lauro Müller in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil in 1827 by an English company. The industry was underdeveloped until the middle of the 20th century, however, because the coal was of poor quality and expensive to transport domestically. Therefore, higher quality and cheaper coal was imported from England and Germany. It was not until World War I that the mining industry in southern Brazil began to take off. Railway lines were extended, and a number of new mining companies were created. Getúlio Vargas’s government furthered the spur in coal exploration with its policies mandating the use of domestic coal. By 1960, there were more than twenty exploration mines in the Santa Catarina region. The petroleum crisis of 1973 further spurred the industry’s growth. As a result, Brazil’s coal mining processes underwent technological modernization and greater concern for the effects of coal exploitation, cleaning, transportation, mining, and combustion on human and environmental health. In spite of these advancements, though, low quality coal production continued to be characterized by poor working conditions and little regard for environmental and health impacts.〔Silva, Wollenschlager, Oliveira: 2010〕〔Silva, Oliveira, da Boit, and Finkelman 2008〕〔SATC〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Coal mining in Brazil」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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