As If There Weren’t Enough To Dislike About Coal
According to the American Energy Society (an organization that covers energy issues quite objectively), more land must now be mined to produce the same amount of coal. They write:
1980: about 10 m2 (~110 square feet) of land was disturbed to produce one metric ton of coal (2,200 pounds).
2015: about 30 m2 (~330 square feet) of land was disturbed to produce the same amount of coal — a 300% increase.
That’s terrible! Maybe it’s time we switch to 100% renewable energy! That would help the environment so much! Imagine your mother is really depressed because she is lonely, so you decide to spend more time with her. That’s essentially what switching to green energy does to the environment!
Susan,
Switch to 100% renewable energy ! That’s great, I sincerely love your passion and enthusiasm!
Just one small problem, it’s just not possible! In fact, it may not be possible for a very, very long time. In meantime we must “keep the lights on”. Modern industrialized scocieties must have “power on demand”, to maintain prosperity while developing nations need large scale, reliable power to prosper. Coall provides 40% of the world’s electrical generation.
Craig certainly loves the idea of “Green Energy”. Over the years he has been a sincere passionate and inspirational advocate for clean energy technology. For that hard work he deserves, and receives my earnest respect.
However, somewhere along the way, during the Obama era, Craig, like many idealistic environmentalists, began to combine clean technology with leftist ideology and began to separate energy technology into two ‘moral’ camps :
1) Fossil fuels which must be “evil’ and irredeemably immoral
2) Wind, Sun and hydro technology, being noble and “morally pure of heart”.
(Nuclear, geothermal, etc, are undecided)
Craig became a sort of modern day ‘Crusader’. Armed with what he, and his once vast army of true believers set off on a Crusade. The Crusade found a charming and charismatic President to the the crusaders into a wonder world of promise, rainbow’s and nirvana.
It didn’t matter if the technology didn’t yet exist, or was completely unaffordable, everything seemed possible. If it wasn’t, why any failures could be blamed on the “evil’ fossil fuel industry !
But, like the real crusaders, most of the “true believers” eventually realized the enormity of the task, the scale of their errors, and the folly of all that early optimism.
The optimistic Spring had turned into a Glorious Summer of seemingly easy victories. It seemed the Holy Grail was just around the corner. Sadly, with autumn the first signs of disquietude and doubt appeared. Tensions and disillusionment began to appear as the more fanatical crusaders crushed dissent a purge of the ranks.
The fall of the great leader, and his greatest supporters, began a period of increasing defeat after defeat, as cold grey reality dawned and the dreams faded, shell-shocked supporters turned away in ever increasing numbers. The desrtions turned into a rout as bitterly disillusioned and anxious survivors sought refuge.
Those forgotten, despised, ridiculed and trampled on by the arroganT Crusaders, awaked and rose up. The found an most unlikely leader and champion. This champion was truly barbaric in his manners, yet he proved to be effective, astute and pragmatic. He offered shelter from the winter and a real summer of prosperity, based on policies they now understood.
Under his banner, they defeated not only the Crusade, but converted the perception of many former crusaders.
These former crusaders realized it was possible to pursue evolution rather than revolution!
They were amazed to discover, it was possible to include fossil fuel industrpes with with all those established benefits in the march to develop, promote and implement clean(er) technology.
These former crusaders rejected the “moral” and political ideology of the old Crusade, concentrating instead on developing practical, effective new technologies that mitigated and even reduced emission levels, while preserving and adding to economic progress.
The tangible results are now being witnessed globaly.
Sadly, old “true believer” Crusaders like Craig, remain left behind The lack the ability to adapt or evolve. Being stuck in the winter of defeat, the old slogans now offer little hope or relevance.
Craig, quoted some selected negative excerpts from an American Energy Society article.
Waht’s sad is ignored an article and illustrated graph also appearing in the same publication highlighting Carbon Capture and Utilization (infographics)
This AES article features some of the hundreds of uses and environmental benefits new clean(er) coal technology is assisting the COal Idustry to become enviornmentally possitive.
The article headed, “Converting Coal into High-Value Added products- Finding a use for every moleclue that’s mined- Not a Molecule left behind “, is inspirational, and very good news for every human on the planet who loves the environment.
You may ask yourself why Craig would ignore such important information.
Just click, [ https://www.energysociety.org/ ] and read for yourself. It’s quite a breif summary, but gives you an idea of how fast the industry is revolving.
Oh, and lastly, did you know that all land affected by coal mining is being rehabiltated, often profitably, providing interesting employment and new industries ?