Gosh, who would have guessed, with all this talk about bringing coal jobs back?
Coal is filthy stuff and shortens the lives of 52,000 Americans each year, according to “So about those coal jobs: Turns out replacing coal with solar could keep a lot more people alive,” a report by Brian Bienkowski of The Daily Climate, which appeared June 5, 2017.
The number is obviously much bigger worldwide, a pollution reality in part driving China and India’s rapid move to clean, advanced energy.
Sadly, the new U.S. administration flunks a huge character-test, by focussing only on coal jobs while never acknowledging other factors like, you know, the premature deaths of innocent citizens living downwind or working in the industry, or how it impoverishes their heirs.
Classic Trumpian diversionary tactic, to keep the electorate from openly discussing coal’s real costs, including not only its vast medical bill, but also the unnecessary sadness of a family member dying young.
As if to rub it in, the article points out: “There are now about 260,000 solar jobs in the U.S., compared to just 51,000 in coal mining.” And solar jobs are growing, while the fracking revolution has so starkly lowered natural gas prices that coal continues to gradually go out of business… The market has already spoken: Coal is no longer the fuel of choice for large electricity-generating power plants, having been replaced with cheaper natural gas, as well as new generations of solar farms or wind farms producing cheaper kilowatts.
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(Photo credit: Oxfam International.)
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It falls upon you to lead the way with substantive global warming solutions.
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