How Coal Kills
scientificamerican.com
How Coal Kills
1–10 of 52 posts
Re: How Coal Kills
#2It seems unlikely we'll ever put a price on coal's impact on people's health (and therefore the cost of healthcare) and on the environment. But the very least we could do is cut the subsidies, and let it compete fairly against solar and other renewables. Eventually we'll chase it out of the market, because solar ill keep getting more cost-effective.
Re: How Coal Kills
#3It seems unlikely we'll ever put a price on coal's impact on people's health (and therefore the cost of healthcare) and on the environment. But the very least we could do is cut the subsidies , and let it compete fairly against solar and other renewables. Eventually we'll chase it out of the market, because solar ill keep getting more cost-effective.
Would you be willing to have a truly level playing field, where no energy technology was awarded subsidies?
Re: How Coal Kills
#4It seems unlikely we'll ever put a price on coal's impact on people's health (and therefore the cost of healthcare) and on the environment. But the very least we could do is cut the subsidies , and let it compete fairly against solar and other renewables. Eventually we'll chase it out of the market, because solar ill keep getting more cost-effective.
Would you be willing to have a truly level playing field, where no energy technology was awarded subsidies?
Not only would that be very difficult to do, nuclear and coal have had decades of subsidies, giving them quite an unfair head-start.
In any case, by 2017 solar will be at grid parity in most of the US. By 2020 this won't even be a topic.
Re: How Coal Kills
#5I'm interested in the study of complex issues like these (more from a math point of view than a political one) - how to optimize for the right choice, given that each choice has a bunch of non-overlapping side effects.
But I don't really know where to get started. What could I google for?
Re: How Coal Kills
#6It seems unlikely we'll ever put a price on coal's impact on people's health (and therefore the cost of healthcare) and on the environment. But the very least we could do is cut the subsidies , and let it compete fairly against solar and other renewables. Eventually we'll chase it out of the market, because solar ill keep getting more cost-effective.
Would you be willing to have a truly level playing field, where no energy technology was awarded subsidies?
A truly level playing field would mean internalizing all externalities. If that were possible, yes, that would be ideal, but as he just noted, it's really unlikely, partly because it's enormously complex.
Re: How Coal Kills
#7It seems unlikely we'll ever put a price on coal's impact on people's health (and therefore the cost of healthcare) and on the environment. But the very least we could do is cut the subsidies , and let it compete fairly against solar and other renewables. Eventually we'll chase it out of the market, because solar ill keep getting more cost-effective.
Compete fairly against solar by eliminating coal's subsidies but not solar's?
Re: How Coal Kills
#8I'll flip the question:
Considering that coal has provided a very significant amount of the electrical power and heat for humans over the past 100 years, how many lives has coal saved? How much has it improved the human experience?
Put simply, a world without coal is a horrible world.
Re: How Coal Kills
#9Coal contributes to most of the mercury pumped into our atmosphere, which is what's contaminating the fish, and more radiation than nuclear power.
Re: How Coal Kills
#10I'll flip the question: Considering that coal has provided a very significant amount of the electrical power and heat for humans over the past 100 years, how many lives has coal saved? How much has it improved the human experience? Put simply, a world without coal is a horrible world.
Well, temper that with a view of a world where coal was scarcer, more expensive. It would not have been used for so many purposes, we'd have been more efficient in our spoiling of the planet. Being as cheap as it was, led to a car for every garage, consumerism, inefficient insulation in houses for the first century etc.