The World Needs to Quit Coal. Why Is It So Hard?

[Rhiannon12866]

HANOI, Vietnam — Coal, the fuel that powered the industrial age, has led the planet to the brink of catastrophic climate change.

Scientists have repeatedly warned of its looming dangers, most recently on Friday, when a major scientific report issued by 13 United States government agencies warned that the damage from climate change could knock as much as 10 percent off the size of the American economy by century’s end if significant steps aren’t taken to rein in warming.

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.

And yet, three years after the Paris agreement, when world leaders promised action, coal shows no sign of disappearing. While coal use looks certain to eventually wane worldwide, according to the latest assessment by the International Energy Agency, it is not on track to happen anywhere fast enough to avert the worst effects of climate change. Last year, in fact, global production and consumption increased after two years of decline.


Much more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/24/climate/coal-global-warming.html



An open pit mine in Burdwan, West Bengal, India. Coal is the single largest source of electricity worldwide. Rebecca Conway for The New York Times

[mitch96]

1. It's a political football

And they like playing the game.... Prolly up to and including our extinction...

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[MyOwnPeace]

2. It is difficult

to reduce use when you have a president* who supports and encourages the use of it, all while having the support and encouragement of the coal industry.

[NNadir]

3. Well, let's see...

...perhaps if journalists at the New York Times and elsewhere spent as much time commenting on the fact that 7 million people die each year from air pollution as they spent on the possibility that someone might die from radiation at Fukushima, the outcome would be different.

There is one, and only one, type of power plant that has historically run at higher capacity utilization than coal plants. That type of plant is a nuclear plant.

Both types of plants are generally utilized to provide base load power. One type is clean; the other isn't.

[ronatchig]

4. Well in answer to the?

It's called black gold for a reason.Historically the profits from this industry have been like catnip to the elites. You know the ones who think they can pay for a personal escape from the devastation .