Coal is still the primary fuel for power generation across the world. Colombia is the fourth-largest producer.
I visited Pribbenow open-pit mine, which is one of the largest open-pit in the world.
The operation lies in La Loma, Cesar, east of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range in northern Colombia.
After being sorted on site the coal begins its journey from land to sea. The 150km track lead from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to the new port in Ciénega where the coal is loaded into ships.
Local fishermen and the indigenous peoples that still ives inside the Sierra are indeed affected by the industrial developments. If coal mining has lifted large parts of the country out of poverty, the heavy industry is responsible for a dramatic environmental impact.
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains are home to around 30,000 indigenous peoples, made up of four distinct but related tribes – the Kogi, the Arhuaco, the Kankuamo and the Wiwa.
They have lived there since the Pre-Columbian era and they maintain and very similar life style to their Tairona ancestors, living in stone and thatch huts, worshiping Aluna (a.k.a. Mother Nature), and viewing the Earth as a living being and humanity as its children.
Their consider themselves living at the "Heart of the World" and their duty is to protect the sacred mountain. In 1990 they came out of isolation and decided to speak out to the rest of the world - so called younger brother - suggesting modern culture was destroying the balance of the world