Energy News Briefs
World Watch Institute Calls For Coal To Be Phased Out
by Wallace McMullen
| Coal is a filthy energy source
responsible for a host of health problems around the world and the time has come for it to
be phased out, according to a report recently released by the World Watch Institute. Seth Dunn, author of the report that appears in the September/October issue of the Institute's magazine said "Coal's share of world energy, which peaked... in 1910, is down to 23 percent - roughly where it was in 1860. While coal's market price is at a historic low, its environmental and health costs have never been higher. |
"Coal accounts for 43 percent of the annual
global carbon emissions but supplies only 26 percent of the world's energy... Two main
ingredients of coal smoke are particulate and sulfur dioxide pollution, which cause
500,000 premature deaths and millions of new respiratory illnesses each year in urban
areas worldwide. " To minimize the dislocation of workers [when coal is phased out], the institute recommends following the lead of governments in China and the United Kingdom who have located solar cell manufacturing sites near abandoned coal mines. (Most of the major electric generating facilities in Missouri are coal fired). |