Coal, We Need To Stop Burning It.
It is a major contributor to global warming.
Germany affirmed they are going to be 100% renewable fuels by 2050.
Should we in America make such an affirmation? This is shooting for the moon.
I Say Yes!!!
The United States was blessed with abundant natural resources.
The prosperity that we enjoy today was made possible in part through the use of plentiful, easily exploited supplies of fossil fuels.
Coal is one of these fuels, it is easy to extract, easy to store, and burns easily.
And coal is definitely plentiful, the United States has more proven reserves of coal than any other country in the world.
Not only do we have a lot of it, we use a lot of it.
The only country which uses more coal than the United States is China.
Coal is used primarily in the generation of electricity.
More than half of the electricity generated in the United States is produced by combustion of coal.
Almost one quarter of all the energy used in the United States comes from coal.
Now we have to pay the true cost for cheap energy.
The burning of any fossil fuel releases greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide.
The gases and liquid fuels that we use are hydrocarbons, meaning that they are made up of compounds formed of hydrogen and carbon.
The combustion products of hydrocarbons are carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and water.
Coal, however, is composed almost entirely of carbon.
As a result, on the basis of the amount of energy produced, coal generates approximately half again as much carbon dioxide as other fuels.
If we are serious about reversing global warming, we need to wean ourselves away from the most egregious source of greenhouse gases.
The people who profit from the mining and burning of coal want to believe tha ways can be found to mitigate its effects.
The money spent in pursuing these goals would be better spent developing renewable resources.
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