Coal, an addiction
Global warming is no longer a new discovery in the scientific world. People either choose not or choose to believe in it. Countries around the world try to slow down global warming by trying to cut carbon emission. US, the biggest emitter of CO2 into the atmosphere have shown a sign to follow this trend. Many people look at coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, with doubt about the future. Should coal be banned first to cut carbon emission? Although, some people advocate for leaving coal behind the new technology, reality does not allow that to happen. Cheap coal cannot abandon its obstacle to the immature alternative energies and poor government stand.
Coal is heavily use to make electricity. Burning coal is dirtier than burning …show more content…
Wind, solar and other renewable energies have been adopted around the world. “Power generated by the wind and sun increased significantly in America last year; but power generated by coal increased more than seven times as much”( Fallows).The amount of energy provided by green technology is still significantly very small compared to energy powered by coal.”Coal provides 40 percent of the world’s electricity”(Nijhuis). Wind and solar need lot of expanding infrastructure before they can replace coal entirely. Nuclear power is one of the popular choice after renewable energies. Nuclear provide a small amount of energy to US. “the technology is very demanding … and political consequences of nuclear accidents are unpredictable” (Chesshire, 247).The radioactive waste is hard to get rid of and decomposed in a long time. For example, the Fukushima nuclear incident, during Japan’s earthquake of 2011, caused many people fear against nuclear power. “Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant—ground zero of the worst atomic meltdown since Chernobyl” (Beech). Nuclear rarely happen but when it does, it is really bad. “a lack of oversight and emergency initiative can be deadly.” (Beech). Human errors are not flawless enough to control nuclear power. According to Beech, many Fukushima residents committed suicides because of the stress, that did not get alleviate from the Japan government. Nuclear accidents have a big …show more content…
However, people could not have abandoned coal completely without putting a concrete replacement to meet with the high demand of energy. The complex obstruction of phasing out coal show how hard is to phase out most of fossil fuel, the source of carbon emission, and unrealistic it is to have a green future. Eliminate coal is not feasible for now as the current technological and political capabilities are not at the level at cooperating fast enough with climate change’s speed. Phasing coal is a radical step right now that will not cut carbon emission in the long term. Perhaps, new combined awareness of people and government can soften the impact of climate
Global warming is no longer a new discovery in the scientific world. People either choose not or choose to believe in it. Countries around the world try to slow down global warming by trying to cut carbon emission. US, the biggest emitter of CO2 into the atmosphere have shown a sign to follow this trend. Many people look at coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, with doubt about the future. Should coal be banned first to cut carbon emission? Although, some people advocate for leaving coal behind the new technology, reality does not allow that to happen. Cheap coal cannot abandon its obstacle to the immature alternative energies and poor government stand.
Coal is heavily use to make electricity. Burning coal is dirtier than burning …show more content…
Wind, solar and other renewable energies have been adopted around the world. “Power generated by the wind and sun increased significantly in America last year; but power generated by coal increased more than seven times as much”( Fallows).The amount of energy provided by green technology is still significantly very small compared to energy powered by coal.”Coal provides 40 percent of the world’s electricity”(Nijhuis). Wind and solar need lot of expanding infrastructure before they can replace coal entirely. Nuclear power is one of the popular choice after renewable energies. Nuclear provide a small amount of energy to US. “the technology is very demanding … and political consequences of nuclear accidents are unpredictable” (Chesshire, 247).The radioactive waste is hard to get rid of and decomposed in a long time. For example, the Fukushima nuclear incident, during Japan’s earthquake of 2011, caused many people fear against nuclear power. “Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant—ground zero of the worst atomic meltdown since Chernobyl” (Beech). Nuclear rarely happen but when it does, it is really bad. “a lack of oversight and emergency initiative can be deadly.” (Beech). Human errors are not flawless enough to control nuclear power. According to Beech, many Fukushima residents committed suicides because of the stress, that did not get alleviate from the Japan government. Nuclear accidents have a big …show more content…
However, people could not have abandoned coal completely without putting a concrete replacement to meet with the high demand of energy. The complex obstruction of phasing out coal show how hard is to phase out most of fossil fuel, the source of carbon emission, and unrealistic it is to have a green future. Eliminate coal is not feasible for now as the current technological and political capabilities are not at the level at cooperating fast enough with climate change’s speed. Phasing coal is a radical step right now that will not cut carbon emission in the long term. Perhaps, new combined awareness of people and government can soften the impact of climate