There Must Be a Reason That the U.S. Lags the Field in Life Expectancy, But What Could It Be?
It’s hard to understand why our life expectancy here in the U.S. is a disgrace compared to the rest of the developed world (see graph below). We have all the ingredients here we need for success, don’t we?
• Expensive, substandard health care that is unavailable to tens of millions of people
• Coal-fired power plants belching out poisons into our air, causing 13,200 deaths per year and hundreds of thousands of illnesses
• The steady erosion of clean water standards
• Gun violence mowing down school students at ever-growing rates
• Horrible dietary habits promoted by giants in fast food, soft drinks, tobacco and alcohol
• Opiod epidemics, created and expanded by the criminality of greedy drugs companies
• Racial violence and the deaths of unarmed young black men at the hands of the police
• Endless wars that our leaders are determined to escalate
• Mass incarceration that (for several reasons) leads to poor health
It’s hard to understand why we’re dropping like flies compared to people in civilized countries. A true mystery.
Craig,
Why do you bother with repeating such negative commentary while steadfastly refusing to even acknowledge the worldwide momentum gathering around rapidly developing carbon capture ans sequestration ?
You rant on about the ‘evils’ of coal emissions, yet refuse to even discuss technology that may remove 94% of existing emissions within a decade !
Even in the US a bipartisan coalition supporting technology that captures carbon emissions and either sequestrates or converts them to valuable by products thereby preventing pollution from a range of industrial and power facilities.
A Senate committee just passed another bill supporting this type of technology, this time with significant support from rebel Democrats.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed bipartisan legislation supporting the technology’s build out, partly through ensuring coordination among federal agencies to develop pipelines to move captured carbon emissions.
Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming spoke of how the bill would help ensure use of American fossil fuels, while Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware said the tech is essential if greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced.
The world remains heavily dependent upon fossil fuels, but making them cleaner is key to addressing climate change. That’s why this technology is both essential and a rare bipartisan policy.
Slowly the world is acknowledging the rapid advances in technology, and how beneficial these could be, all accept you, who with your fingers in your ears seem to be hating any progress in this area.
Why won’t you even explain your fears and opposition ?
Craig,
Such silence ! Hmmm,…..let’s see if some good news may lure the valiant crusader out from behind that rock and into the sunshine.
Our Troll patrol (younger trolls only) reports the good news that at a conference of 17 major oil companies primarily in exploration and agreement was reached to unilaterally roll out new technology to reduce natural gas flaring by more than 25% by 2020 world wide, including 50 % in West Africa.
Exxon also announced it would be deploying new technology to significantly reduce methane leakages and emissions by 2023 (It’s expected others will follow suit).
This is really good news for the environment and true lovers of the environment. Of course, this is not such good news for haters of oil companies and those using the “environment” to promote other agendas.
But, wait it gets better! After negotiations between President Trump and the PRC President Xi Jinping, China has agreed to apply new “clean coal” to all new coal installations, even those sold for overseas installation.
Beijing will provide additional funding to install the new technology to over 700 new coal plants Chinese companies are building or intending to build domestically and abroad. These plant range from Indonesia to Pakistan to Turkey. One Chinese energy conglomerate is even contracted $2.2 billion investment in a coal power scheme in Bosnia, one of the largest energy projects in Balkans.
Highly efficient ultra-supercritical boilers along with a host of sequestration and other new technologies will be upgrades to all Chinese coal plants, even those abroad after US representations by President Trump.
For nations like Pakistan which is heavily reliant on highly polluting sources like kerosene, this technology will prove a huge improvement.
Ironically, this single advent is worth more in reducing climate change emissions that the totals touted in the Paris Accord.
Genuine environmentalists (like our Troll scout group) will be cheering and acknowledge this win for the environment, sadly, there will be those “greens’ who will see this development as a loss of political advantage and remain sullenly silent !
Oh well, I guess that’s the way it goes ……
I don’t see any “worldwide momentum growing for CCS.” I think it’s a ruse, on a good day.
Craig,
That’s it ? You think it’s a ruse ?
A $ 1.5 trillion “ruse” !?
A ruse involving hundreds of companies, more than 81 countries, literally thousands of companies, millions of people, and it’s all just a ruse ? !!
I mean, that’s pretty sad, even for a one-eyed coal hating, Trump hating, Obama worshiper !
It’s all a “hoax” ? Has your commitment to Wind and leftist politics left you so bereft of scientific curiosity and integrity you just shut down when confronted with information that doesn’t fit into your “beliefs”.
Where are all your supporters ? Where is any evidence to contradict the above information ? Even Bill McKibben hardly a coal supporter, acknowledges the existence of this technology.
As for momentum, I think if getting China, Japan, India, Turkey, Pakistan the US and 62 other nations to agree on the establishment of heavily funded research facilities along with the PRC government not only compelling, but funding the cost, of installing new technology in over 1100 power plants around the world, in addition to the 10 international teams selected as finalists in the prestigious XPRIZE Foundation $20 million prize for solutions to coal carbon emissions, isn’t momentum, what more momentum do you need ?
Good grief Craig, you’re beginning to sound like those you claim to despise !
It may not be the sort of “cleaner ” technology you and I once hoped for, but hey, if it works, who cares ! If the environment benefits, but your political philosophy doesn’t, which is more important ?
The best that can be said about CCS, according to what I’ve read, is that the money would be far better spent on the R&D and scaling of renewables and storage.
Craig,
Well, that could be true, or what’s more likely, is you need to broaden your reading !
The world, including the US, is heavily reliant on coal for energy, and with the exception of industrialized nations with abundant natural gas or Hydro, the demand for coal is increasing and will for decades.
None one is suggesting storage and renewable R&D should cease, but both technologies are already heavily funded while their contribution remains modest and problematic. If over the next 10 years world renewable production increased by ten, or twenty fold, the emission savings would still remain relatively modest.
In fact demand is increasing faster than the growth of renewables (excluding hydro). So even a twenty fold increase over twenty years, wouldn’t really make much difference.
Only the other hand, the new emerging technologies in clean(er) coal energy and to a lesser extent oil could potentially slash carbon and methane emissions by 60% within a decade, and maybe 95% within 2 decades !
The gigantic potential for clean(er) coal is what’s exciting ! Already Exxon’s techniques are showing gigantic reductions, while “clean(er) coal plants already exist in India, China and the US achieving emissions reduction on a massive scale.
Reducing coal emissions requires a whole suite of technologies. There’s no one “magic bullet, but projects are emerging rapidly once the US government stopped suppressing and banning research and investment.
Coal, Natural Gas and Oil, represent 65-70 % of the world’s man made climate change emissions. If these can be significantly reduced, the impact on the environment is enormous and immediate.