"The Truth Behind Peabody's Campaign To Rebrand Coal as a Poverty Cure"

"The story Linda Jing tells in the video is slick and persuasive: she was a girl from a poor village forced to study by candlelight because there was no electricity until coal-fired power plants arrived, transforming her destiny and that of China.

“It’s not an easy life,” Jing says, whose school was an old temple. “We actually had to bring our own little oil lamp or homemade candles for some of the school sessions.” The children had to go there very early, often in the dark, she recalls.

In the three-minute video, ‘From Candles to Computers: Bringing Electricity to China’s Jing Jin village’, she says: “The coal industry is a major force in eliminating fuel poverty in China but, more importantly, it’s a critical driving force for the phenomenal economic growth China has experienced.” "

Suzanne Goldenberg reports for the Guardian May 19, 2015.