Coal is the major problem. It supplies 27% of the world’s energy and 40% of its electricity. In the USA, coal supplies 23% of all energy and a whopping 49% of electrical energy.5 Coal is also the worst CO2 emitter. In 2007, CO2 emissions from coal burning amounted to 2.65 billion tons in China and 2.20 billion tons in the USA.6 No other nation was responsible for more than 0.54 billion tons. No wonder, since China and the USA produced 41.1 and 18.8% of the world’s energy from coal because of their large deposits.3 It is easy to see why coal is so dominant: it is cheaper than oil or gas; there is a large supply of it; and it is easy to transport by rail. The mines are not remote; no pipelines need to be built; and there is no need for tankers which occasionally crash and foul our beaches.

Coal is bad news also because it causes deaths in mining accidents, it destroys the environment when whole mountains are dug up, and it emits many pollutants such as sulfur. We all remember stories of families waiting in vain for news about their loved ones trapped miles deep in the earth with no hope of rescue. In the USA alone, 100 million tons of coal ash and sludge are stored in 200 landfills annually, and these contain dangerous contaminants such as arsenic, lead, selenium, boron, cadmium, and cobalt.7 The problems are exacerbated by the rapid development of China, where coal plants are being built at the rate of one large one in a week, while the USA has stopped building them as of 2007. Let us concentrate on this biggest problem: the unstoppable industrialization of China and India. In China, 74% of energy comes from coal, and this will increase to 90% with continued growth, though efforts to develop renewables may hold the line at 70%.8 China has about 30,000 coal mines, 24,000 of which are small ones which use antiquated equipment and are not regulated for safety. In 2006, 4,746 miners died in China, versus only 47 in the USA; both numbers are down from those in earlier years. Chinese coal generates every year 395 billion cubic meters of methane, SO2, and black soot, all of which have larger warming potential than CO2. Furthermore, the methane is what causes explosions in mines, and the SO2 causes acid rain. Of the million people in China suffering from black lung disease, 60% are miners. This disease increases the coal mining death total by 50%.8 It is not likely that other energy sources can replace coal any time soon, but we can try to mitigate its effect on global warming.