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In Reply to: RE: Since when has coal become clean? posted by Postal Grunt on May 03, 2008 at 21:58:24
Postal, thanks again for you intelligent and compelling commentary. I will rebut it to the best of my abilities, though maybe not to everyone's satisfaction.The simple fact is, industrialization is a deal with the devil. We all know it. Plastics, paints, laminates, solvents, sulphur, mercury in vaccines, hospital waste, biohazards, radioactivity, lead ... tell me which of these things you want to banish?
It is estimated that the furor that caused by Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," which lead to eradication of DDT has caused nearly 50 million deaths, mainly from mosquito-borne malaria.
Nearly 400,000 -- FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND!!! -- Americans have perished in highway related deaths over the past 10 years alone. Does this mean we suspend private automotive transportation?
I'm sure you can think of many such examples of your own.
Is coal clean? Is oil clean? Is wind really clean? After all, you need to manufacture those heavy metals, those polymers, those composites, armitures, bushings, electric cables, power stations, etc., etc., etc., to COLLECT the wind power and convey it to customers. Solar? It has it's own problems at the manufacturing source -- just as computers do. Is it cleaner than coal? Does it cause less cancer? Does it have a lesser impact on the environment. Almost certainly.
But think about what our energy needs really entail: Supporing the vast infrastructure of builings, and heating systems and air conditioners and appliances and factories and chemicals and etc., etc, etc.
So I must ask you and other thoughtful green advocates a question: Just how green is green? What is the total pollutive impact of buring coal as opposed to say, solar, as a total percentage of the entire industrial base it supports?
Do we want to go back to pre-industrial times? Do we want to give up our cars, with their tires and plastics and metals and adhesives and electrical sub-assemblies and etc., etc., etc. Are we willing to do without air conditioning in our homes? How about heat? How about lights?
So the BIG question is: How green do you want to be?
I would say that coal, for the intermediate term, is clean enough. I could be made cleaner! If it became a part of our transportation power equation, then we could do without gasoline, and the pollutive aspects of powering our cars could be centralized at the power plant, where it could be dealt with efficiently. Right now, we have 100 million power plants rolling around our highways, which is a very INefficient way to deal with pollution.
And what about the NIMBY crowd? What's new here? If we put the NIMBY's in charge of the country, we wouldn't even HAVE roads ... we wouldn't even HAVE power plants, etc., etc., etc.
It's time for the State and Local Governments to begin to exercise eminent domain. Of course, as a card carrying Republican, it would demand that anyone whose property values are demonstrably negatively impacted this exercise, either directly or indirectly, be compensated for their losses. And I know exactly where I would begin: off Ted Kennedy's oceanside compound in Martha's Vineyard, where he has successfully stone-walled the installation of ocean-based wind farms in one of the richest wind corridors in the Western Hemisphere.
And what about the coal miners in Kansas, in Tennessee and West Virginia? They HAVE to be equipped with the best safety equipment we can practically muster.
But we have got to get real. Even Doctors are exposed to life-threatening risks. And though corporate executives are not known to succumb to black lung, they are prime candidates for Sudden Cardiac Death Syndrome.
And there's is not area in which we need to face reality MORE than in our energy policy. I have said again and again, don't believe these self-pampering, self-promoting politicians when they tell you that they can click their heels together and create a green industry. Scientists, universities, and venture capitalists the world over have been pouring billions and billions of dollars into the initiative. So far, progress has been slow. But we WILL get there.
But the consequences of leaving the United States of America without a robust, domestic energy program for the interim could be absolutely catastrophic -- to our economy, to the livelihood our our children, to our countries ability to support the baby boom generation in retirement and ill-health. And that brings us right back to those miners in Kansas, doesn't it?
P.S. I couldn't help but notice your reference to "hiding behind a moniker on an obscure internet bulletin board." I have never quite thought of my participation here in quite that way. Could you elaborate on this? I assume you mean it as some form of chastisement. But I am not sure why.
Edits: 05/04/08 05/04/08 05/04/08 05/04/08Follow Ups:
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