Daniel Munoz

Shane Perkins of Team Australia celebrated with his son Aidan after winning the Men’s Team Sprint Final at the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne Wednesday. (Daniel Munoz/Reuters)

Mike Enochs, left, and Gary Enochs salvaged a crib from Mike Enochs’s destroyed home Wednesday in Forney, Texas. Multiple tornadoes touched down yesterday across the Dallas/Fort Worth area, causing extensive damage. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

U.S. soldiers lay on the ground at the scene of a suicide attack in Maimanah, Faryab province, Afghanistan, Wednesday. A suicide bomber on a motorcycle at a market killed at least 11 people, including three Americans, according to Afghan and Western officials. (Gul Buddin Elham/Associated Press)

Baylor’s Brittney Griner, right, blocked the shot of Notre Dame’s Kayla McBride during the first half of their women’s NCAA championship college basketball game in Denver Tuesday. Baylor won, 80-61. (Mark Leffingwell/Reuters)

Tiger Woods teed off during a practice round Wednesday before the start of the 2012 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)

Coal occupies a central position in modern human endeavors. Last year over 7000 megatons were mined worldwide. Powerful, yet dirty and dangerous, use of coal is expanding every year, with 2010 witnessing a production increase of 6.8%. Around 70 countries have recoverable reserves, which some estimates claim will last for over a hundred years at current production levels. Mining for coal is one of the world's most dangerous jobs. While deadliest in China, where thousands of miners die annually, the profession is still hazardous in the West and other regions as well. Our mining and use of coal accounts for a variety of environmental hazards, including the production of more CO2 than any other source. Other concerns include acid rain, groundwater contamination, respiratory issues, and the waste products which contain heavy metals. But our lives as lived today rely heavily on the combustible sedimentary rock. Over 40% of the world's electricity is generated by burning coal, more than from any other source. Chances are that a significant percentage of the electricity you're using to read this blog was generated by burning coal. Gathered here are images of coal extraction, transportation, and the impact on environment and society. The first eight photographs are by Getty photographer Daniel Berehulak, who documented the lives of miners in Jaintia Hills, India. -- Lane Turner (48 photos total)
22-year-old Shyam Rai from Nepal makes his way through tunnels inside of a coal mine 300 ft beneath the surface on April 13, 2011 near the village of Latyrke, in the district of Jaintia Hills, India. In the Jaintia hills, located in India's far northeast state of Meghalaya, miners descend to great depths on slippery, rickety wooden ladders. Children and adults squeeze into rat hole like tunnels in thousands of privately owned and unregulated mines, extracting coal with their hands or primitive tools and no safety equipment. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

WARNING: SOME IMAGES CONTAIN GRAPHIC CONTENT OR NUDITY
From the uprisings across the Arab world to the devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, there was no lack of news in 2011. Reuters photographers covered the breaking news events as well as captured more intimate, personal stories. In this showcase, the photographers offer a behind the scenes account of the images that helped define the year.

BULLET HOLES: A police officer investigated at an IHOP in Carson City, Nev., where a man fatally shot two uniformed National Guard members and a third person, wounded six people and fatally shot himself Tuesday. National Guard members had been meeting at the restaurant. (Cathleen Allison/Associated Press)

BUZZ CUT: U.S. Army Pfc. Shawn Riggins shaved the head of Army Pfc. Kyler King at forward operating base Kushamond in Afghanistan Tuesday. (Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

DUMPSTER DIVING: A man collected trash from a garbage bin in Shanghai Tuesday. (Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press)

SWIMMING WITH GANESH: A man carried an idol of the elephant-headed Hindu Lord Ganesh into the Arabian Sea as part of a ritual during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai Tuesday. (Divyakant Solanki/European Pressphoto Agency)

IN SHOCK: Police officers rescued a girl, 12, whose father had held her hostage for hours at a law office in Parramatta, Australia, Tuesday. Police stormed the building and arrested the 52-year-old man who had claimed to have a bomb in his backpack. (Daniel Munoz/Reuters)