Climatology and oncology are sciences.

Geology is also a science.

Coal is in decline primarily because it is in geological decline.  Coal peaked in the US in 1999, in terms of BTUs.  There's still a lot left, but growth in coal is not physically possible.  The best coal deposits in the US were in Pennsylvania, where it peaked in 1920.

The arguing over whether coal is good or not (it's not) distracts from the fact that the best coal is long gone, one of the reasons for strip mining and mountaintop removal is the coal companies are going after lower quality coal.