Blood coal: Ireland’s dirty secret | Noel Healy

Burning coal is the single largest contributor to global climate breakdown. Human rights violations at the sites of fossil fuel extraction are often hidden.

The connections between County Clare, Ireland and La Guajira, Colombia may not be entirely obvious at first glance. Yet the regions are linked through a shared commodity: coal. Extracted in one region and burned in the other.

Coal extraction in La Guajira has a dirty secret, which I've witnessed first-hand: it is connected to a system of production entrenched in violence, bloodshed and environmental destruction.