Environmentally Friendly Energy Resources? No Thanks, Coal is Preferred

Current discourse about environmental sustainability and global warming is at an all time high. With all those hybrid cars, like the Toyota Prius, lurking on every street corner and movies, which wasn’t really a movie at all but a rather elongated PowerPoint presentation, like Al Gore’s and Inconvenient Truth hitting the big screen, more and more people are becoming aware of the potential environmental problems we face in the near future. Even the seventh goal of the United Nations’ MDGs is focused on environmental sustainability while promoting economic growth. However, according to a recent Associated Press article entitled, “World's coal dependency hits environment,” the international effort to integrate alternative energy resources is far from becoming a reality. In fact, dependency on coal is expected to drastically increase by 60 percent by 2030 to 6.9 billion tons a year. How then, can the UN increase environmental sustainability when the world continues to destroy the environment by consuming fossil fuels?

Coal is simply cheap and abundant. It is the fuel of choice in much of the world with a majority of it going towards electrical power plants. Accordingly, the fossil fuel is responsible for the economic booms in China and India and it has seemingly lifted millions of people out of poverty. Of course it is great to see economic development in parts of the world where poverty has been a longstanding issue, but because of the pollutants emitted by the burning of coal, the environment has suffered drastically. Most of the buzz on global warming today is an externality of carbon emissions. An atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington, Dan Jaffe, states, “Hands down, coal is by far the dirtiest pollutant.” The growth of coal-burning is also directly related to environmental and health issues including acid rain and asthma. An estimated 2 million people are killed prematurely as a result of air pollution, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

It would be politically incorrect to point fingers at individual nations with respects to who is responsible for global warming because every nation has made their contributions. Yet, recent trends have shown that some countries are contributing more to the carbon mission than others. In fact, China and India have been on the forefront of polluting the environment. It takes five to 10 days for the pollution from China's coal-fired plants to make its way to the United States, like a slow-moving storm. An AP Environmental Writer, Michael Casey, comments in an article that it takes 5 to 10 days for the pollution from China's coal-fired plants to make its way to the United States, like a slow-moving storm. China’s pollutants have been found in the form of mercury in the bass and trout caught in Oregon's Willamette River and contributes to acid rain in Japan and South Korea.

Despite all the environmental concerns, China shows little desire to convert to alternative energy. A prime example would be population of the town of Taiyuan and the surrounding Shanxi Province. This area is China's top coal-producing region and one of its most polluted. Nevertheless, coal has turned poor farmers in this city of 3 million people into Mercedes-driving millionaires. Therefore, it all comes down to the power of money. I guess it’s time to think about what’s more important; a sustainable planet for future generations or wealth and pleasure today?