Editing 2992: UK Coal

{{comic
| number    = 2992
| date      = September 30, 2024
| title     = UK Coal
| image     = uk_coal_2x.png
| imagesize = 532x232px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = The Watership Down rabbits removed an additional 0.1 nanometers constructing their warren, although that was mostly soil. British rabbits have historically mined very little coal; the sole rabbit-run coal plant was shut down in the 1990s.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT RUNNING ON 3 INCHES OF THE UK - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic uses dimensional analysis to humorously describe the end of the coal mining industry in the United Kingdoms, in reference to the [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y35qz73n8o shutting down of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power plant] in central England on Monday, September 30, 2024. This event signified the closure of the last coal-using power plant in the UK. UK coal ''production'' has also been in decline significantly since {{w|1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike|the politically enforced decline in the 1980s}}, and the proposed opening of the new {{w|Woodhouse Colliery}} in Cumbria [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62533nyvzwo seems to have been stopped], leaving just the [https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/coal-mining-production-and-manpower-returns-statistics-2023/coal-mining-production-and-manpower-returns-received-by-the-coal-authority-january-to-march-2023 remnants of the coal-mining industry] active. There remain uses for coal, both locally obtained and imported, but the conversion away from coal [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70zxjldqnxo in various industries] marks a possible soft-end to the British era which started with the {{w|Industrial Revolution}}.

The equation shown in the comic determines how much coal was mined in the UK with respect to the surface area of the region, and results in the total change in height if the amount of coal mined was evenly redistributed across the UK. The caption creates the humor of the comic by reducing the entirety of the coal industry’s environmental impact into a 3 inch height difference.

The comic’s title text adds the additional humor of referencing the same metric for rabbits (referencing {{w|Watership Down}}, a children’s book about a group of English rabbits), and humorously implying the existence of a rabbit-run coal plant in the UK and suggesting it was shut down in the 1990s. The volume of earth described, 0.1&#x202F;nm × 240,000&#x202F;km<sup>2</sup>, is equal to 24&#x202F;m<sup>3</sup>. This is a humorous play on depictions of anthropomorphic rabbits in children's literature. No rabbit-run coal plants have ever been documented.{{fact}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[The following formula is shown (with the divisor below a horizontal line in the comic, rather than inside parentheses):]
:UK total coal production (1853-present, ''UK DESNZ'') / ((coal seam density) × (UK land area)) = 25 billion tonnes / (1.3kg/L × 240,000km²) ≈ 3 inches
:[Cueball is standing to the right of the formula, above the ground and a dotted line. Two arrows indicate that the dotted line is 3 inches above the ground]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The UK shut down their last coal power plant today, which means that over the course of the industrial revolution, they dug up and burned an average of 3 inches of their country.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]