Getting Rid of Coal: It’s Easy To Oversimplify The Process
Those of us who are concerned about the ongoing capacity of our planet to support life are looking forward to the day on which our civilization extracts and burns its last lump of coal. But is this a simple matter? No, far from it.Here’s a wrinkle understood by only a few: the buoying effect that the railroads have in keeping coal alive. Transporting coal from the mine to the power plant is intensely profitable, and thus, when coal comes under economic pressure, the freight rail giants can lower the cost of transporting it, thus adding new life to an industry that would have otherwise been driven into annihilation.
Maybe it’s time for our society to stop angling for profit in industries that are destroying our home. Just a thought.
Laws are made necessary by the inability of persons to restrain their passions, and greed is a highly destructive passion.
Craig,
Good grief, why do you continue to perpetrate a delusion ?
The world use of coal as a source of energy is not based on the corrupt influence of railroads !
Coal still provides 33 % of US Base load electricity generation. US coal is also exported to nations not blessed with vast natural gas reserves.
World Coal-fired electricity generation is increasing, not decreasing ! In 2018 it will increase from about 40 % of all the planet’s power to 43-4 % when the new plants being built in developing nations come on line.
Environmentally, the are only two approaches :
A) Craig’s Method .
Pretend coal-fired generation could stop tomorrow, and not be missed ! With a sprinkling of pixie dust coal fired power can be replace by renewable sources (this also requires never acknowledging environmental problems associated with renwables).
B) Marcopolo’s method.
Recognize reality by developing technology to mitigate the harmful effects of Coal, while continuing to develop an economically effective alternative such as thorium or similar advanced nuclear technology.
It’s a simple choice. You can enjoy sitting around do nothing useful, effective or practical, just inventing conspiracy theories and being ideologically correct, or get on with supporting practical, realistic solutions, that while not perfect, can actually be implemented.
I’m not advocating anyone should “love” Coal ! What I’m advocating the pointlessness and ineffectiveness of living in a delusion.
Demonizing and ranting on about the evils of Coal while offering no practical alternive is simply counter-productive.
Hey Marcopolo!
What’s this B/ Marcopolo’s method?
That sounds perilously close to my ‘global clean and abundant energy imperitive’ definition, circa 2002 also!
LOL.
OK you can share it anytime you want mate, it is a solid summary after all.
Craig will be a convert soon also, he badly needs a boost of credibility.
Lawrence Coomber