When someone speaks about coal, it always comes to mind
that coal is a polluting source of energy that we need to stop using, to keep
our planet safe. But wait a minute; did you know that 41% of the world’s
electricity production is based on coal?!
But what does this mean? Why countries like USA and
Germany are are still using coal for electricity production?
The answer is not a simple one, but it is a combination
of economic, supply and demand, technology and sometimes even politics. But we
all know how coal is very polluting energy source was the sole reason for
cities like London to suffer from Black cloudy sky that blocked sun light even
in good summer days. At that time many poets mentioned these clouds of smog in
their poems. And we thought that this century is not going to be a coal tolerant
one! Surely we (environmentalists) were wrong about that.
Should we protest on countries ignoring to care for the
environment?! But first what are the alternatives?! I've been always looking at
the green movement in a relatively biased point of view (although sometimes I
dream of waking up to see that there are no longer polluting agents nor harmful
emissions but that dream seems to be belong to another era, a more advanced
one)
Let me put it this way, if you or I were in a position
of power and were given the option of either use coal or make our countries
suffer from electricity blackouts what would we choose?
Keep in mind that there are patients in hospitals and
elderly people who want to get warm in winter or they will suffer, a premature
child that needs to be kept in a warm incubator to survive and the examples are
endless.
So what is the solution, many people think that decisions
are binary and that things are either black or white, just like USA used to
deal with other countries regarding many political issues in Bush’s time “it’s
either you are with us or against us”. In many cases that is not the case and I
can be against use of coal to produce electricity but at the same time ask not
to cut coal’s use, but would ask to make it more efficient, thus reducing its
polluting impact on earth. This way we are under a win-win situation where at
the time that energy is being produced we are caring for the environment.
Moreover, we can ask and seek to use more efficient
gadgets and electrical equipment and by this way we can if it is not possible
to reduce growing demand but to slow it down. And thus reduce the need for more
coal use. Even when we have to use coal we can seek to increase its efficiency
and thus needing less coal to produce more juice out of it and thus producing
less carbon in the way. We dream of zero emissions and 100% green energy
production, but at the time being, this case is far reaching and it needs more
efforts, so in the mean time let us look for useful ways to solve our energy
problems rather than fighting with others.
More of this subject is going to be discussed later, and I can’t wait to
see your comments and thoughts about it! thank you.