Dear LPG, 

We hear so much about the many things we can do to help when it comes to conserving the energy on this planet of ours.   Ever since I was a child I remember being told how important it is not to waist the world’s resources.   

I admit to being old enough to remember when we stopped seeing the coalman arrive with that lorry of sacks before humping one onto his back and emptying it into the hole that lead to our houses coal cellars.

I am thinking back to the time when every room in the house had a fireplace and getting the first fire of the day started on a cold winter’s morning was one of the jobs that had to be done by a family member who had to get up in the cold to do it.  I have no doubt that children of today still have trouble getting up in the mornings and blame the cold during the winter even though the radiators have usually been automatically turned on before they ever have to throw their blankets off.

I remember when television programmes were not shown all night and the comfort that sitting around the fire in the evenings afforded was often the focus of my childhood home. There was something warm and comforting about just being able to sit and gaze at one for a bit.  Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that, in spite of the radiators that we all associate with heating our houses these days, there are still so many electric heaters which boast a coal or log fire effect on the market.  Even now I think that I feel warmer when I can see a fire in spite of the real temperature.  

But all that comfort came at a price when you think of all the men that mined it and those that continue to in the knowledge that the days of their jobs are numbered, the conditions that they work in and the dangers they face.  The news is now more likely to include stories of potholers being stuck underground but I can remember a time when that sort of story would have been about coal miners.  We also paid for all that comfort with the really foggy days that burning all that coal caused and I also remember the many strikes that the coal mining industry sparked over the years.

So now, the governments of the world continue to battle with the question of how to conserve our world’s natural resources while, according to a television program I saw this morning, millions of people just watch and stream hours of log and coal fire videos on our televisions, computers and tablets.  

Do you not think that we live in a strange world? 

CL, Lewisham

CL shares a few warming fire inspired videos and suggests you take your pick… 

(►►►)  

…while we, at LPG have found a few facts about coal mining over the years…

(►►►)