Axing Coal, Like Any Other Improvement, Offers a Range of Benefits
From the American Energy Society:Every coal fired power plant in the world has a specific size requirment, and the same is true for all industries that require ore from waste rock as well as metal oxide powders. The process of crushing rock to a manageable or usabe size is called comminution (def: the reduction of solid materials from one average particle size to a smaller average particle size, by crushing, grinding, cutting, vibrating, or other processes). Mining comminution (grinding) consumes about 4% of electric energy globally.
This is typical of what happens when a society rids itself of a harmful process: many separate benefits accrue.
Think of what happens as we phase out petroleum in favor of electric transportation. Yes, we eliminate exhaust with its CO2 and toxins, but we also have no more drilling, pipeline creation, shipping, refining, and distribution.
We also reduce the population of criminal liars. No more entire organizations hiding the truth about climate change, and lying to investors about the value of their assets.
