A❤️445-word🧡2.5-minute💚read
Coal is a reoccurring topic in my posts. If I were in charge of combatting climate change, the complete elimination of coal would be a priority. Even if it meant replacing it with natural gas.
Burning coal releases soot, mercury, sulfur dioxide, heavy metals, particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides. For good measure, ozone is a secondary pollutant resulting from the emission of the nitrogen oxides. All of this can cause acid rain, respiratory illnesses, and heart problems.
Compared to natural gas, coal emits 2.3 times the amount of CO2. I once did a poor man’s analysis of the impact on emissions if coal and oil power generation was replaced with natural gas worldwide. My rough analysis indicated that global emissions from power generation could be reduced by 30%.
In short: when it comes to the environment, coal is a nasty fuel.
The harm from coal goes well beyond its long-term environmental impact. For those who are unfortunate enough to live in proximity to a coal plant, coal is plain hazardous to your health.
This point was brought home by an article published by 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘸𝘴 headlined:
𝗞𝗶𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗻𝘀𝘆𝗹𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗮 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 (𝗠𝘂𝗰𝗵) 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗵𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱
I normally shy away from such headlines because they frequently contain biases. Focusing on children is a communications strategy to tug at people’s emotions. And emotions tend to negatively impact the decision-making process.
But after reading the article, I was convinced that the information provided wasn’t colored by an agenda. It chronicled a study published a couple of weeks ago that examined the effect of closing the Shenango Coke Works near Pittsburgh, which, by the way, operated for 54 years.
There’s one caveat: the plant wasn’t burning coal to generate power. It was producing coke for steel production. As the article pointed out, coke is a concentrated form of coal, so the environmental impact of the plant was far worse than a typical coal power plant. Still, the study is eye-opening.
The research looked at the three years prior to the plant’s closing and the three years immediately following the 2016 closing. It noted that the population hadn’t materially changed. As one of the researchers observed, “This was a natural experiment.”
Here’s what the researchers found in the nearby community of Avalon:
▶ There was an immediate 20% decrease in weekly ER visits for respiratory problems.
▶ Among children, there was a 40% decrease in visits for pediatric asthma.
▶ Long term, pediatric asthma visits continued to decline, as did hospitalizations for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Coal is neither beautiful or clean, and President Trump’s desire to reinvigorate the industry is just stupid.
#coal #coalpower #carbonemissions #steelproduction