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Not only is coal burning making massive contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, and hence climate change – the whole coal industry has massive costs, estimated in a new report by team from Harvard University's Center for Health and the Global Environment.
Abstract:
Quote:Each stage in the life cycle of coal—extraction, transport, processing, and combustion—generates a waste stream and carries multiple hazards for health and the environment. These costs are external to the coal industry and are thus often considered “externalities.”We estimate that the life cycle effects of coal and the waste stream generated are costing the U.S. public a third to over one-half of a trillion dollars annually. Many of these so-called externalities are, moreover, cumulative. Accounting for the damages conservatively doubles to triples the price of electricity from coal per kWh generated, making wind, solar, and other forms of nonfossil fuel power generation, along with investments in efficiency and electricity conservation methods, economically competitive.
We focus on Appalachia, though coal is mined in other regions of the United States and is burned throughout the world.
Report is at:
from BBC:
Quote:China's policy of giving free coal for heating to residents in the north has contributed to shaving 5.5 years off life expectancy there, a study says.It says air pollution from burning coal in the area north of the Huai River, with a population of some 500m people, was 55% higher than in the south.
The region also had higher rates of heart and lung disease as a result of the policy in force up to 1980.
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