The principal union of US coal miners has accepted the need to put an end to coal mining.

This raises a number of issues of justice.

The miners have the duty, like the mine owners, to cooperate fully with rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as toxic pollution.

Former miners, present and future, deserve the things that the union now demands for them. They deserve this not as an exchange for ceasing to campaign against civilization's survival, but because all unemployed and retired people deserve those benefits, to the extent we can provide them. They are parts of a proper welfare system.

One demand is to properly clean up and close abandoned mines. That is a necessary part of reducing the toxic pollution over the long term.