Coal: what do we do about it?

Coal, we love to hate it. It's dangerous to mine workers, it's twice as bad for the climate as natural gas, it's not much safer for local residents than for miners.

But, it just so happens to power the world: it is by far the largest source of energy in the US and 80-90% in China!

In the Europe and the US we have two options: try to stop coal power plants being built or try to stop any coal power plants without carbon capture and storage being built. We have moderatly growing needs for energy along with the need to replace old plant. Things are rather different in China and southeast Asia.

Jeremy Carl makes a compelling case that green groups need a better stance than coal is evil. Think of it this way, China has the vast majorit of its power from coal. If these plants could be upgraded affordably then far more carbon would be saved that by building gigawatts of wind power. Shouldn't there be campaigns to research more efficient coal power and to roll out this technology...discuss.

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