The canary in the coal mine

--proverbial. Used to colorfully indicate some harbinger of coming doom, like, say, a Supreme Court ruling that undermines the government’s ability to address climate change.

One thing you shouldn’t do when you are stressed is reach for your phone immediately upon waking and read the news. Especially if you are traveling. This is mainly because it might be that you will find that the Supreme Court has made another ruling, and the other people in this hotel didn’t pay good money to wake up to your shrieking potty mouth.  

Nevertheless, Thursday morning, from my bed in a hotel in Spokane, Washington, I reached for my phone immediately upon waking and found that the Supreme Court had ruled in West Virginia vs. EPA:  In a dispute between the coal industry and the people trying to protect the environment from the coal industry, the Supreme Court decided in favor of coal.  

I grew up just south of Pennsylvania’s coal country. I spent my elementary years learning about Ben Franklin, the Liberty Bell, and coal. We learned about mining and about the different types of coal—principally anthracite (the harder one, in abundance in PA) and bituminous. The different types of coal have different colors, different feel between your fingers, and different uses. Despite what you might have heard, none of them are “clean.” 

Coal is dirty carbon. When we burn it, it releases heat, greenhouse gasses, and poisonous filth that can turn your lungs literally black and cause a host of mental and physical health problems. Not to mention the environmental problems, which then lead to more health problems.  

Image by Herney Gómez from Pixabay

In 1962, one of the coal seams in Centralia, PA caught fire. The fire probably started when the city set fire to the landfill to address trash odors, and the landfill, being in an abandoned mine shaft, was a bit too close to the coal. Among other deadly poisons, this large, underground fire emitted carbon monoxide, which began to permeate the basements and homes of Centralia residents. Some of these residents were able to afford the expensive precursors to today’s carbon monoxide detectors. Some of those who couldn’t bought canaries. Canaries have long been associated with coal mining because of their talent for getting obviously sick or dying when exposed to carbon monoxide. Put the canary in the mine shaft (or your home); if the bird gets sick or dies, do not go in.

The canary is so associated with coal mining that the “canary in the coal mine” has become proverbial, used to colorfully indicate some harbinger of coming doom. This way lies death, the canary warns us. 

The community of Centralia, PA—the people of Centralia—is not there anymore, but the fire still burns. For decades the community fought to stay. Eventually, the state decided it was cheaper to buy out the people of Centralia than to make the enormous investment it would take to dig into the coal seam and put out the fire.

Now the legacy of Centralia is to act as a proverbial canary—itself a harbinger of things to come. When we decline to spend our resources to protect our communities, the community dies and the fire burns. If we are unwilling to make the enormous investments that it will take to reverse our greenhouse gas emissions, if we are unwilling to change the way we live, if we are unwilling to effectively regulate, of all things, the coal industry, the people and our communities will die, and the planet will burn.