Should We Ban The Use Of Coal?
Gene Hughes
Rationale
I chose this topic because I have an interest in the conservation of our planet and its natural resources. I wanted to know if my opinions on coal usage are valid.
Intro
Coal is an essential resource in our everyday lives. It is used to generate electricity, in the making of steel, and as an ingredient in cement, fertilizer and cosmetics. But, coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. When burned, it produces emissions that contribute to global warming, create acid rain and pollute water. Considering we may have less than 40 years until the end of coal, releasing over 790 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere should not be an option. We should not ban the use of coal, we should just reduce it.
Paragraph 1 (What do we use coal for?)
Coal has hundreds of uses, It would be very difficult to stop using coal altogether. Coal power accounts for 68 percent of coal use, another 7 percent being used in the manufacturing of steel. Derivatives of coal are also important ingredients in plastics, explosives, medicines, cosmetics, fertilizers, cement, and many other products and processes. But we are using way to much coal and need to cut out some uses.
Paragraph 2 (What do we need coal for?)
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But we use it for many things. We use coal to heat metal to a molten state, in soaps, explosives, dyes, cosmetics, and in hundreds of other things. But we the main thing coal is used for is generating electricity. Burning coal to make power is cheap and effective, but is not worth the toll it takes on the environment, as we can generate environmentally friendly, renewable energy now. We also do not need to use coal to heat things as we can instead use electric induction heating, which the electricity can be generated for renewably. All we should continue using coal for, is as an ingredient in
Coal production had become a driving force behind the United States industrial revolution. Coal was used for a variety of purposes including powering steam engines, iron manufacturing, and the heat in homes and towns. One of the largest users of coal in southern Colorado was the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I). Their furnaces were heated with coal from, he Culebra Mountain range in the southern part of Colorado was known for having some of the richest coal in the state. The coal is glossy black bituminous coal the second highest grade of coal available.
Coal is considerably one of the most important sources of energy in nature and is one the most significant sources for power generation worldwide. The excavation and importance of coal became mainstream and apparent during the Industrial Revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The myths must be dispelled. First of all, coal is not a bountiful. It is a nonrenewable resource and, according to a United States Geologic Survey, it is only expected...
Coal also can be very damaging to the environment. People in the coal industry don’t always follow the precautions needed for helping the recovering environment that coal mining hurt. Most of the time water is polluted from the byproduct the is produced while mining coal. Like acid mine drainage, air pollution from coal-fired power plants, coal dust, coal sludge, and mountaintop
What is the role of coal in the United States?. U.S Energy Information Administration, 16 Aug. 2013. Web. 11 May 2014. .
The loss of a life is the ultimate tragedy, and over the thousands of years of mining history, the industry has had its share of casualties. Mining deals with the extraction of raw materials like coal, diamond, iron-ore etc. Mining industries can be both open cast mining and underground mining. Although we have improved in the technology and study of the earth, mining industry is a very dangerous job. One of the most dangerous work of mining has been mentioned to be coal mining in which they extract coal from underground. Coal mining hazardous mixture of gas and coal dust can form a fatal explosion. As a matter of fact, I reviewed an article that mention the worst coal mining known as the Benxi Hu colliery disaster in China in 1942. “Cost 1,549 lives and is believed to be the worst coal mining disaster ever.” (Limited, 2014)
Roughly 68 percent of the electricity generated in the United States of America is produced by fossil fuels. That includes petroleum, natural gases and coal. Although coal contributes around 37 percent to the factor, it is by far not the cleanest of them all. Some might argue that it is good for the economy because it is cheap and it creates jobs.. But the other side of the story portrays coal mining as a process that kills thousands of coal miners a year and that it practically destroys the environment around the mining with soot and air pollution. Mining now days is a big part of urbanization; due to how cheap the process is. There are different ways that coal mining is done. Mainly mountain top removal is done but there are many other
As the nuclear waste, the chemical pollutants are harmful and carcinogen for human, therefore, their use need to be minimized and substituted to product with lower effect on people effect. The emission of coal fired power plants are not only harmful for human beings but also animals and plants, so the better solution would be to upgrade the industries responsible of those emissions for ones that have lower production of harmful particles. About fracking, which is a way to get supplies in many resources like oil and gas, I think that at some point it allow a nation’s self- reliance and support the economy growth; however, its use is the cause of multiple health issues and damages to the environment. Despite the benefit of it, I really think they should be severely regulated while scientist find a new way to extract resources. It would not only reduce the possibility to arm the environment, but also, the effect would lower the degradation of the ozone layer.
As the world is literally heating up, so is the pressing, controversial topic of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) publishes a climate change report every 5 years; the 2014 report is the most alarming report thus far. The long report is the collaborative work of more than 800 climate scientists and governmental representatives. The report is shocking, and it should be. The IPCC concludes that human activity is the cause of climate change, just as smoking causes cancer. The increasing living standards of industrialized nations are resulting in an increased use of coal energy. Along with the growing population, coal is being used at extravagant rates and increasing. Unfortunately, coal poses a threat to the future of humanity, and we are the direct cause (Richardson, 2014).
As a Kentucky resident, I understand that coal is much more than form of energy, for many it is a way of life. Kentucky is the third largest producer of coal in the United States, and for many families in Eastern Kentucky, the coal industry has provided stable employment for generations. I would like to make clear that I am not speaking out against coal mining in general; I am speaking out against one method of mining. Mountaintop removal mining is the most destructive form of coal extraction in existence...
The natural resource that I am writing this paper on is coal. Coal is a cheap, dirty fossil fuel which we burn to create power. Coal is the most abundant in North America and in Russia, including the area around it. China also has a fairly good amount of coal in it too. Coal, like all of the other fossil fuels is nonrenewable and will eventually run out, in the not so near future. Coal is very important to many of the countries of the world. The countries that use the most coal are China, the United States, India, Russia, and Japan. These five countries “account for 76% of total global coal use.” (World Coal Association, 2014).
Imagine having a loved one with cancer, organ damage, nervous system disorders, or your child having birth defects. Imagine running out of clean water because the only water available is capable of catching fire. Imagine oil in rivers and animals losing their homes. See yourself caught in an earthquake where there should not be one. All of this is increased by fracking and can be prevented. The question is should fracking continue or should it be banned.
In 2007, the world consumed 5.3 billion tons of coal, 31.1 billion tons of oil, 2.92 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, and 65,000 tons of uranium. All of these energy needs could have been met with only 6,600 tons of thorium, an abundant, slightly radioactive element found in the Earth’s crust.
Burning and mining coal for fuel is harmful to the environment but because how cheap and easy it is to find many people are unwilling to give it up as a fuel source. One of the problems with coal is that they are limited and are non-renewable so once it has been used we won’t be able to use it again.
Fuels like coal, and oil that once were a fine innovation in creating energy are now rapidly deleting and one day will be gone forever; energy that won’t last is often referred to as non-renewable energy. Besides being set up to fail and become inefficient in the future, fossil fuel energy is not clean to use and poses several environmental complications. Coal, for instance is “the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. Coal combustion not only produces sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides that contribute to acid rain and snow, it generates millions of tons of particulates that cause asthma and other respiratory diseases.” As with all usage of fossil fuels, it creates enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, which contributes to greenhouse gas. Not only are fossil fuels dirty, they also pose as a security risk and unforgiving on the American wallet. (Saini)