Public Enemy No 1 – King Coal

 

 “The main reason why coal sticks around is, we built it already.”                                                                                                

 Rohit Chandra, Harvard PhD

It’s been three years since the Paris climate accord was signed. And for the last two years the use of coal to power electrical generators has declined. Welcome to 2018, when the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, coal (and the lesser grades of coal are unbelievably vile pollution sources), is experiencing a resurgence. There is no commercially-viable process that can create “clean coal.” The process that produces “clean coal” is nothing more than forcing massive emissions from burning coal deep underground for future generations to figure out.

 “Cheap, plentiful and the most polluting of fossil fuels, coal remains the single largest source of energy to generate electricity worldwide. This, even as renewables like solar and wind power are rapidly becoming more affordable. Soon, coal could make no financial sense for its backers.

 “So, why is coal so hard to quit? … Because coal is a powerful incumbent. It’s there by the millions of tons under the ground. Powerful companies, backed by powerful governments, often in the form of subsidies, are in a rush to grow their markets before it is too late. Banks still profit from it. Big national electricity grids were designed for it. Coal plants can be a surefire way for politicians to deliver cheap electricity — and retain their own power. In some countries, it has been a glistening source of graft.” New York Times, November 24^th.

 Other than the existence of infrastructure and the fact that vast coal reserves all around the planet offer the lease expensive fossil fuel available, coal-fired power remains at the top of the list of sources of global greenhouse gasses. As demand for coal in the West, even in the United States where coal is lumbering under a misplaced and failed Trump-policy encouraging more usage, slackens, Asia seems unable to kick the habit:

 “Home to half the world’s population, Asia accounts for three-fourths of global coal consumption today. More important, it accounts for more than three-fourths of coal plants that are either under construction or in the planning stages — a whopping 1,200 of them, according to Urgewald, a German advocacy group that tracks coal development. Heffa Schücking, who heads Urgewald, called those plants ‘an assault on the Paris goals.'  

 “Indonesia is digging more coal. Vietnam is clearing ground for new coal-fired power plants. Japan, reeling from 2011 nuclear plant disaster, has resurrected coal."

 “The world’s juggernaut, though, is China. The country consumes half the world’s coal. More than 4.3 million Chinese are employed in the country’s coal mines. China has added 40 percent of the world’s coal capacity since 2002, a huge increase for just 16 years. ‘I had to do the calculation three times,’ said Carlos Fernández Alvarez, a senior energy analyst at the International Energy Agency. ‘I thought it was wrong. It’s crazy.’

 “Spurred by public outcry over air pollution, China is now also the world leader in solar and wind power installation, and its central government has tried to slow down coal plant construction. But an analysis by Coal Swarm, a U.S.-based team of researchers that advocates for coal alternatives, concluded that new plants continue to be built, and other proposed projects have simply been delayed rather than stopped. Chinese coal consumption grew in 2017, though at a far slower pace than before, and is on track to grow again in 2018, after declining in previous years.

 “China’s coal industry is now scrambling to find new markets, from Kenya to Pakistan. Chinese companies are building coal plants in 17 countries, according to Urgewald. Its regional rival, Japan, is in the game too: nearly 60 percent of planned coal projects developed by Japanese companies are outside the country, mostly financed by Japanese banks.” NY Times.

 As Donald Trump’s efforts to ramp up more coal production to fire more coal-fired electrical power generation have rather dramatically failed, much of the rest of the world is making the longer-term global warming disaster scenario so much worse. A November 23^rd 13-federal agency report to Congress warns of drought, flooding, fires, loss of coastal land, and increased storm intensity… the kind of stuff Trump likes to ignore. 

 But as the hard cost of rebuilding after the accelerating rate of climate-change-driven disasters – costs that sit will into the trillions of dollars – merge with that report’s suggestion that our economy should be expected to contract by 10% by the next century, you’d think a president who worries about our economy and business advantage just might take notice. But since his cronies would have to change their ways in dramatic fashion ($$$), it’s easier to shrug shoulders or simply deny that there is a problem. 

 We’re rapidly running out of time. As bad as the disaster facing the United States might be, for most of the world, lacking our economic power, the losses could kill millions of people and decimate the quality of life, including health, for billions more. “Scientists have repeatedly warned of its looming dangers… An October report from the United Nations’ scientific panel on global warming found that avoiding the worst devastation would require a radical transformation of the world economy in just a few years… Central to that transformation: Getting out of coal, and fast.” NY Times. What humanity is really doing fast… is going in exactly the wrong direction.

 I’m Peter Dekom, and the degree of narrow-minded environmental selfishness is on the brink of killing vastly more people than all the great historical plagues combined while rendering significant tracts of earth uninhabitable or agriculturally barren.