Clean Coal????

Capitol Climate Action - Mass Civil Disobedience

Quite a few environmental groups are organizing an event that will send a powerful message to congress. Their wish is to halt the building of Coal Plants immediately with fear that each new plant will set us back 50 years on the environmental front.

On March 2, 2009, thousands of people will emerge on "Capitol Coal-fired Power Plant in Washington DC– a plant that literally powers Congress with dirty energy."

For more info: Capitol Climate Action

Fair and Balanced?? The Coverage of the UN Climate Conference

I realize that there are a lot of things going on in the news these days, but I find it amazing that when something like the UN Climate Conference is happening in Poland as we speak, I am hard-pressed to find anyone covering it.

Yes, I realize that the economy is in the forefront of everyone mind,(mine included). And Bailouts are the hot topic at the water-cooler. But, (and you knew there was going to be one) why isn't anyone talking about something that will affect us all for the rest of our lives...let alone the future generations?? Am I being dramatic? I don't' think so.

I can easily offer that I have always felt the news is very skewed. If I stand back long enough, I can equate the news media with a group of gossipy girls in high school...always talking about the hot topic and treating everything else like "yesterday's news."

Now, I am fortunate that I have available to me friends who are at the conference, so I can keep abreast of what's going on. But when I run a Google search about the conference, mostly what I pull up is dated from last year. Gee, I can't imagine why it's hard to get people involved in taking action in what should matter most to them.

What you are missing is that the United States is actually doing good at the conference. People at the conference are feeling really good about the Obama administration and what promises it is offering our future.

The new villain seems to be Canada, with it's efforts to weaken their commitment to reducing carbon emissions. "Kyoto required industrial countries to cut emissions by an average five per cent from 1990 levels. Canada has rejected that standard, seeking instead to reduce emissions by 20 per cent from 2006 levels by 2020." Using a down turned economy as it rationale. Australia is also dragging it's heels in the agreement, giving keynote speakers like Al Gore a lot to do to convince them to stay on board.

11,600 participants from all over the world are at this convention. Now I realize that it's not as big as the Obama rallies pre-election, but significant nonetheless. “Negotiators have been discussing a number of issues that are important in the short run - up to 2012 - particularly for developing countries, including adaptation, finance, technology and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation,” said the UN’s top climate change official Yvo de Boer. If you want to talk "Bailout", let's talk about how we need to bailout third world countries so they won't continue to destroy the rain forests in order to survive.

The decisions made here are amazing and will help guide our future for the better or for the worse. And yet it doesn't seem to get the attention it deserves. The news may be fair (cough, cough), but I have yet to believe that it is balanced.

Another Oxymoron - Clean Coal

My favorite commercial on television lately is one that opposes "Clean Coal". It actually starts off with a man who is dressed in a yellow hard hat and promises a tour of a "Clean Coal" factory. As he walks you through the doors of the factory, he is showing you every inch of the production plant that offers "Clean Coal". But as we see him walk around and shot over the machines, what you see is really nothing. He's out in the desert and only pretending that he is in the factory. In actuality, he's showing you nothing. Which is the message...there is no such thing as "Clean Coal."

What is "Clean Coal"? Does anyone really know what it is? I know what coal is. It's black and very dirty to handle. And when I burn it, it lets off a strong gas. Yes it provides heat, but it trade the heat for the release of carbon at a much higher rate than the earth can handle. I also do not know anyway to make it clean. The word clean is just another way to get you to feel better about coal as an energy source. In order to get "Clean Coal", the coal industry chemically washes minerals and impurities from the coal, thus helping the environmental impact of the burning coal, or so it first appears. So the emissions are reduced, but what happens to the waste??

The problem is that emissions and wastes are still the problem. The waste is transferred from one waste stream to another. The burning of fossil fuels (coal) is a major contributor to Global Warming. The question is left, "What would you do with the waste after the commercial industry started producing it in mass quantities?" Very much like the "safety" of nuclear powered submarines that John McCain spoke of during his campaign...the sub is safe, but what about the waste? Ask the Navy where it stores the waste and what they are planning on doing when the time is up for the containers.

As much as we hear about the use of "Clean Coal" as a viable alternative, it is estimated that it could not be commercially produced until the year 2020. Great, what do we do until then?. What do we do now? It is imperative that greenhouse gases and carbon emissions are cut in half now...not another 11 years from now.

"Clean Coal" is just another buzz word for politicians to throw around when they don't want to really commit to doing anything about alternative energy. The next time someone says "Clean Coal", just ask them:"How clean is it?"

For more information about "Clean Coal", check out these sites:

Wikikpedia The Sierra Club and the published report by Greenpeace (PDF)

Greenpeace in Poland at the UN Climate Conference

If you want to follow along to see what's happening at the United Nations Climate Conference in Poland right now. You can check out the Greenpeace's blog for the event:

Click here.