[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NuiqZq_kCY[/youtube]
I think whoever put this ad together did an excellent job. Subtle, effective, and well thought out. While I am personally not super anti-coal like some of my friends I do feel that the clean coal myth needs to be addressed. My sincere hope is that as alternative ways to produce energy are perfected and implemented we will see less and less coal used. Actually thats almost a near certanty as alternative energy is both cleaner and cheaper over the long run.
Anyhow, here is another video by the Reality Campaign.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdHuB7Ovl2o[/youtube]
Have a great Christmas everyone, I’ll see you again next week.
I’m one of those darn liberals who thinks we should use coal. I mean, as a stop gap measure to dependence on foreign energy supplies, it’s hard to beat.
But coal has lots of problems, among them being:
1) unscrupulous mine owners who rape the land and pillage its workers – or is that rape its workers and pillage the land? (Seriously though, Mountain top removal and sludge waste in streams B.A.D.)
2) that last 10% or so of the material that is bad for the environment as used right now – sulfur, acid producing chemicals, heavy metals…
3) and because of the above it still produces smog, allergic reactions and other health problems
But it’s very concentrated and if someone can put real work into figuring out how to use it more efficiently and cleanly we should use it. I don’t think this will mean a high price for the consumer if we watch those coal company owners like hawks but as with any big business, left to their own devices they will surely screw over everyone to make a profit. The same reasoning can apply to nuclear power. Sure you have lots of nasty by-products and in the past safety has been a concern. But these problems have largely been addressed and those that haven’t can be. Let’s get off the government and energy companies are bad bandwagon and go with the “we can fix it with science” thought process instead. Michael Crichton be damned (may her RIP).
But do we have clean coal right now? No, not really. This is not to say we can’t get “fairly clean coal” if we work on it.
This also doesn’t mean to use solar, wind, tidal, geothermal heating or any other clean energy source. We ought to be researching and USING the heck out of these resources right now. My own favorite is wind. I can’t grasp why someone would object to using big windmills to get energy just because it slightly obstructs your view. I’ve seen no evidence to support the claim that large flocks of birds get hurt by flying into the darn things either!
Oh, another way to reduce energy consumption is use trains more and reduce the miles tractor trailers need to drive on highways. Trains are way more efficient.