No matter what the science have to say about the atmospheric warming effects of CO2 emissions, hundreds of new coal-fired power plants are being built. I wish I was joking but I’m not. It seems like the policy makers of this world is trying to kid themselves and all others into believing in something that is very hard to tell. Only one thing is for certain: they are not taking the climate science very seriously. If they did, they would call off the building of all new coal-fired power plants, and put the blame on something as honest as relatively new scientific breakthroughs. They could even say that the decision not to build new coal-fired power plants came as a rational response to the same scientific breakthroughs.
New coal-fired power plants are the last thing this planet needs. It should really be as simple as that. But it isn’t, and you’ve got to wonder why. Having heard about the greenhouse effect ever since you were a child, you will be perfectly right in asking yourself simple questions. Like, are they not worried? Are they mad..?
And the simplest of all answers would be: “NO. THEY’RE NOT MAD. — It’s only that fossil-fuels are the cheapest of all sources of energy in existence.”
Money is money.
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Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the environmental impacts of coal-fired power plants:
The world’s power demands are expected to rise 60% by 2030. With the world-wide total of active coal plants over 50,000 and rising, the IEA estimates that fossil fuels will still account for 85% of the energy market by 2030. World organizations, and international agencies like the IEA are concerned about the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels. According to a 2005 report from the WWF, coal power stations are at the top of the List of least carbon efficient power stations in terms of the level of carbon dioxide produced per unit of electricity generated. The combustion of fossil fuels contributes to acid rain, global warming, and air pollution due to the impurities and chemical composition of the fuel (electricity generation is responsible for 41 percent of US manmade carbon dioxide emissions). Acid rain is caused by the emission of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide into the air. These themselves may be only mildly acidic, yet when it reacts with the atmosphere, it creates acidic compounds such as sulfurous acid, nitric acid and sulfuric acid that fall as rain, hence the term acid rain. In Europe and the USA, stricter emission laws have reduced the environmental hazards associated with this problem.
