Here is a cool chart of the estimates for global carbon emissions.
It shows the estimates from various sources and proves an interesting view as to high and low estimates.
So we are probably at about 35B tonnes per year. The increase doesn’t look like it is planing off any time soon though, no matter which way you measure it.
If you have never done so, you want to visit the EarthJustice site about coal ash: http://earthjustice.org/our_work/campaigns/coal-ash-contaminates-our-lives
And what you want to do, is visit this site every time you see one of these sweet and pretty ads about “Clean Coal”.
Admittedly, the EarthJustice takes the other side of this far, very far-from-clean, source of energy. However, coal produces half of the electric power in the US. Well, all right, now only about 34%. But that “cheap” energy has a lot to do with the high quality of life that we all enjoy. It also does not get credit for the hidden costs it presents to the environment and to personal health.
Back to the dirty little secret of Coal Ash. Remember the Ash trashing by TVA in 2008. The damage is into the billions of dollars and climbing. And it has not been cleaned up. All those heavy metals in the ash down a couple rivers. Sadly, that’s a gift that keeps on giving.
Heavy metals include lead, mercury, arsenic and more. Sulfur, lots of sulfur. They can have traces of radiation. We, in the US, tend to want to clean most of these by-products from this soot from the smoke. Other countries like India and China, not so much so.
And we have these ash build-ups all over the world…. And the mountains are growing.
Here’s just one source on the running costs and litigation at ABC News.
Of course is the worst fossil fuel, by far, in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
We don’t need to burn that dirty coal, better simply to ship it to China and India and let them burn it there. No harm done in that.
AP IMPACT: CO2 emissions in US drop to 20-year low – Yahoo! News:
CO2 from the US is down. WOW!. See the full EIA report on CO2 Emissions.
The last time we had that was in 2009, we all assumed that was mainly because of the economic slowdown. But apparently, even then, part of it was because of the switching to NatGas.
“[T]he U.S. Energy Information Agency, a part of the Energy Department, said this month that energy related U.S. CO2 emissions for the first four months of this year fell to about 1992 levels. Energy emissions make up about 98 percent of the total.“
So the big reasons for the CO2 emissions reduction is primarily because of the switch to NatGas from coal in energy generation! … The slowing of economic growth down to 1.8% is another reason.
What’s amazing about this is that the switch to natgas is primarily driven by market forces. The power industry has been wining endlessly about the big food of the EPA on the juggler veins of the power industry… and of course the US economy. Yet, the move happened way ahead of schedule.
Low prices of nat gas make it, well, irresponsible, not to switch to clean gas away from dirty coal.
Health benefits (fewer deaths and injuries in mining). Massive improvement in air and water quality. No coal ash to deal with.
This would all be a good thing, if it weren’t for the massive increase in coal consumption from China and India. Where, exactly, is the benefit of us cutting back on coal when we simply ship it to China and they burn it. And they don’t worry about scrubbing it as much as we.
China now burns half the coal in the world, and rising quickly.
Sorry for looking good news in the eye and sounding skeptical. We sometimes simply need a little good news here and there and just to enjoy it.
Ahhhh, NatGas, A cleaner addiction to a unsustainable problem.
Federal Appeals Court Ruling Puts Climate Change into Election Debate:
So there is no question. The EPA can, in fact, regulate greenhouse gasses (GHGs).
It gives additional credibility to the science of GHGs=> Global Warming => Not good things for the future.
There are a couple things that this will do. It will elevate the EPA and its regulations in the election world.
It should escalate the attacks on the EPA.
And one would hope that at least COAL would start to lose favor.
It will be interesting to see how this plays forward.
Here’s the AP take on the same court ruling in the San Francisco Chronicle.