From cradle to grave, coal is one of the most polluting energy sources on earth. Our addiction to the energy coal provides has fundamentally altered the earth's atmosphere and physical landscape for the worse. Yet despite coal's harmful effects on human health and the environment, we continue to mine it, burn it for electricity, and dispose of its abundant wastes in unsafe ways.
Coal plants are some of the most polluting industrial facilities on earth. The pollution emitted from their smokestacks has a profound impact on human health and the environment. Let’s take a look in three steps at mining, where damage is done to the environment:
1. Coal mining.
Mountaintop removal coal mining has irreparably destroyed mountains and streams across the areas near the mines and local communities.
2. Coal burning.
Burning coal for electricity generates more than a third of our national carbon dioxide emissions, the primary cause of global warming. Coal-fired power plants, in addition to their tremendous impact on the earth’s climate, also release dangerous toxic pollutants like sulfur dioxide and mercury into the air and water.
3. Coal waist pollution.
Coal ash is the hazardous waste full of toxic metals that remains after coal is burned. Power plants dump this waste in unlined landfills, ponds, or underground mines, where toxins in the ash readily leach into drinking water supplies. The coal ash spill in Tennessee in 2009 drew national attention to the dangers of coal ash but federal protections are still nonexistent.
The effects are tremendous as we can see and I can put them on a larger scale as well.
Effect on global warming as it was mentioned before is huge. Global warming is the greatest environmental challenge of our time. Reducing our reliance on coal-fired electricity by replacing it with clean, renewable sources of energy will help us avoid the worst aspects of climate disruption. Coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of carbon dioxide (CO2), accounting for more than a third of total emissions.
Effect on Respiratory Ailments is a problem also. Coal-fired power plant pollution both causes and worsens respiratory illnesses like asthma, emphysema, and bronchitis. Heart attacks have been associated with even short-term air pollution exposure. Nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and particulate matter (PM) are the major culprits. But these pollutants also produce ozone (O3, a.k.a. smog), and additional particle pollution in the form of nitrates and sulfates.
Effect on haze. Imagine visiting Mt. Rainier or Canyonlands National Park only to find priceless vistas obscured by a gray haze. Unfortunately, national parks and wilderness areas across the U.S. suffer from such compromised views, and coal plant emissions are a large part of the problem. Emissions of particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) reduce visibility in these areas by as much as two-thirds in the western U.S. and four-fifths in the eastern U.S.
Effect on water pollution. Not all pollutants leave coal plants through the air. Efforts to reduce air pollution by "scrubbing" pollutants from smokestacks with a mixture of water and chemicals has led to toxic wastewater—often containing heavy metals like selenium (Se) and lead (Pb)—that is typically dumped directly into nearby waterways, threatening drinking water supplies. Additionally, mercury (Hg) released through smokestacks eventually settles on land and in water, where it can accumulate in fish and shellfish and ultimately make its way onto our plates.
So all in all, my first post showed the harsh legislation on coal mining, but does it really comes in effect and helps to reduce environmental pollution? Coal mines are all around the world doing harm to the environment and working in full speed. The legislation I think is just concentrated in good quality of the working environment for the workers and big procedures for opening a coal mine, but as we can see, there has to be some more action taken in this field.
Lukas Inokaitis
Subturma 5
Student Nr: 21750
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