Home/Posts Tagged ‘coal’
Posts Tagged ‘coal’
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Nov 2nd, 2011,
Growing anti-nuclear sentiment in Europe has reached another milestone. Following Germany’s move to close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022, Belgium has decided to shut its own starting in 2015 and completing by 2025, according to a Reuters report. Much like the companies that run Germany’s nuclear stations, Belgium’s energy operator, Electrabel, warned of blackouts, environmental pollution and a decrease in energy independence as a result of the imminent shut down of the country’s 7 atomic power plants. From AFP: Already a net importer of electricity, Belgium could become increasingly dependent on its neighbours, increase its carbon footprint…
Tags: atomic, Belgium, Climate change, coal, energy, Europe, Fukushima, Lynas, nuclear, plant, power
Green living, Nature, Pollution, Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, Oct 22nd, 2011,
Abraham Ramonwana, head guide at Tuli Safari Lodge says: “if a mine develops in South Africa, it’s also going to affect Botswana and Zimbabwe”. The authorisation given to an Australian company called Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) to construct an open-cast coal mine, called the Vele Colliery, just outside of the boundaries of the Mapungubwe National Park will affect this fragile natural harmony. To Abraham, “mining and industry is a short term plan, tourism is a long-term plan.” Abraham, like many others, believes that the Mapungubwe region should be preserved and protected from the impacts of infrastructural development, and allowed…
Tags: Abraham Ramonwana, coal, coal mining, Coal of Africa Limited, manungubwe, Pollution, South Africa
Science & Technology, Sep 15th, 2011,
Four miners are trapped in a flooded coal mine in Gleision, near Swansea in Wales, UK. A local councillor from Wales is quoted in the Guardian: This is the first mining disaster I have known for many years. There are not many collieries left like there used to be. However, it is a very worrying situation and it has shocked a lot of people. Though such an incident may grab headlines in the UK, coal mining accidents and deaths are a frequent occurrence in China, though mining-related deaths have fallen in that country in recent years. From China Daily: According to earlier…
Tags: coal, coal mine, Gleision, miners, trapped, Wales
Health, Politics, Pollution, Jul 25th, 2011,
New York City’s long-serving mayor Michael Bloomberg has a history of highlighting the “public health” aspects of political issues: tobacco, trans-fats, handguns and now coal. Far from a leftist, the pro-business, social liberal, mega-rich philanthropist and media tycoon is neither George Soros nor Silvio Berlusconi, but he’s got a few things in common with both. Bloomberg, once a Democrat, then a Republican and now an Independent, has come out hard against coal. But his latest move is not a political power play – it’s a charitable donation to the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. A cool $50 million (€35m) charitable…
Tags: Bloomberg, coal, Health, Mayor, New York, NY, Pollution
Climate Change, Health, Pollution, Jun 15th, 2011,
The dirty, low-tech burning of fossil fuels, wood and other biomass produces poisonous pollution and “short-lived climate forcers”, mainly black carbon, methane and ground-level ozone. Black carbon (soot) from sources such as crop burning, dirty diesel engines and simple coal or wood burning stoves causes cardio-pulmonary diseases and low birth weight. UN figures put deaths due to indoor smoke from cooking stoves alone at 1.9 million per year – mostly women and children in developing countries. A study from the University of Delaware states that soot from diesel freight ships contributes to 60,000 deaths from lung disease every year. Ground-level…
Tags: biomass, black carbon, coal, diesel, ground-level ozone, Health, methane, soot, stoves
Green living, Pollution, May 26th, 2011,
In not-so-olden times London used to be known as “the Big Smoke” due to all the coal fires that befouled its air and choked its inhabitants. Coal produced the famous London fog, which in reality wasn’t fog at all. A “Pea souper” was a particularly ghastly kind of yellowish smog that belched from the city’s chimneys. Less metaphorical was the Great Smog of 1952, when a combination of cold weather, winds and pollutants created the worst air pollution in the history of the UK, causing as many as 12,000 deaths. The Great Smog was soon followed by the Clean…
Tags: big smoke, charging points, coal, electric cars, Green Party, london, London Fog, scheme, UK
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, May 20th, 2011,
As the Philippines moves forward in cleaner energy production and away from power sourced from oil and coal, the streets of its capital city, Manila, are choked with emissions from diesel and petrol-burning vehicles. According to the Global Energy Network Institute (GENI) recent years have seen the Philippines experience a sharp rise in the production of energy from hydro and natural gas, and especially from geothermal and other renewable sources. At the same time, power generated from coal and oil peaked and began a somewhat steady decline during the last decade (though figures are only shown up to 2005). What’s…
Tags: coal, electric, energy, jeepney, Manilla, oil, Philippines, Pollution, power
Pollution, Science & Technology, Apr 21st, 2011,
Things have not been looking good for the world’s favorite technology company. They seem green and ethical and liberal and just plain cuddly-cute, but Apple has fallen from the tree and landed in last place on Greenpeace’s “How Dirty is Your Data” table of tech firms. Cloud computing and our increasing reliance on energy intensive data centers are fueling this change in the way we use energy (for information) and the trend is set to rise 4 fold in 10 years time. From the Guardian: The report estimated dependence on coal for Apple’s data centres at 54.5%, followed by Facebook…
Tags: Apple, coal, data center, energy, Facebook, Greenpeace, intensive
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Apr 11th, 2011,
Greenpeace has been giving facebook a tough time regarding social networking giant’s reliance on fossil fuels to power its massive servers. Back in February 2010 facebook announced that it would build a new, more efficient, datacenter. Sounds, great, right? Problem is they chose to build it in a location where it will be powered by coal-burning electricity plants. So Greenpeace launched the “Unfriend Coal” campaign, which ironically has its own facebook page. Now, in an effort to share its energy efficiency innovations – without directly addressing the coal issue – facebook has decided to be truly open source and share…
Tags: coal, energy, Facebook, Greenpeace, power, tech, unfriend
Climate Change, Green living, Science & Technology, Nov 15th, 2010,
Recently Facebook launched their Green on Facebook page in an effort to green up their image after the big dirty coal data center debacle of earlier this year. According to their Facebook page, the Green on Facebook is run by Facebook and will highlight our efforts to be a green and sustainable global citizen. Together with 56.000 others, I became a fan op the page, and as many others I’m sure I’m pretty disappointed with the content of it. The wall is filled with links to various articles about different environmental topics, but very little information is available about Facebook’s…
Tags: carbon emissions, Climate change, CO2 emissions, coal, datacenter, Facebook, global warming, Green on Facebook, Greenpeace, renewable energy
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Sep 16th, 2010,
Future fossil fuel infrastructure set to be built between now and 2060 will have the strongest effect on climate change, according to a report in the journal Science. The global demand for energy is quickly rising, while political agreements and regulations to curb the resultant rise in greenhouse gas emissions have so far failed. A new study from scientists in the US and Canada has calculated that most of the ‘key’ impacts of climate change could be avoided if no further CO2 power plants were built and that the real risks come from fossil fuel-based energy infrastructure which has yet…
Tags: China, Climate change, co2, coal, emissions, energy, fossil fuel, future, greenhouse gas, infrastucture, science
Climate Change, Pollution, Aug 27th, 2010,
The colossal economic growth and rapid industrialization of China get a lot of media attention these days. The Chinese collectively emit more CO2 than any nation and have recently moved into the ‘second largest economy in the world’ spot – and you can bet they won’t settle for second place for long. The developed world sweats as we fund both these situations. Yes, indirectly we fuel their coal plants and line the pockets of their industry, while our large corporations and governments help keep Chinese working conditions suitably shocking. Aren’t we just the worst? Actually, China should be grabbing even…
Tags: 10-day, Beijing, car, China, Chinese, coal, traffic, traffic jam
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Aug 16th, 2010,
The ‘greenest government ever’ is at it again. The UK’s coalition government headed by Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy PM Nick Clegg has been cutting a lot of green programs and departments in the name of efficiency and belt-tightening. Now they are shelving one of their own environmental plans to regulate coal and gas power plants, a measure they claimed could be implemented upon taking office. From a report in the Guardian: Introducing a so-called “environmental performance standard” (EPS) for power companies would have restricted greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas plants and encouraged companies wishing to build…
Tags: Cameron, Clegg, coal, coalition, EPS, gas, government, greenest, plants, power
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Jul 23rd, 2010,
Europe’s loss-making hard coal mines will be forced to close due to a new tightening of regulations regarding government subsidies. Coal mines deemed uncompetitive will have their subsides diverted from production costs to social and environmental aid for their respective areas. This has been the trend for hard coal mines during the last decade, when overall aid fell by more than 50%. From an article in the Financial Times: New European Union rules that come into force from January will only allow government operating aid to be provided to hard coal mines if closure plans are in place. Those plans…
Tags: aid, coal, EU, Europe, Germany, government, loss-making, mines, Ruhr, subsidies
Climate Change, Pollution, Jun 25th, 2010,
In the 70s and 80s acid rain received lots of attention for being a scourge upon forests and freshwater lakes and streams, poisoning aquatic life, insects and humans as well as corroding monuments and buildings in urban areas. Acid rain never went away, but its levels changed and its sources shifted. You see, acid rain is produced when either sulfur-oxides or nitrogen oxides interact with water in the atmosphere, reducing its ph levels and making it more acidic – resulting in nitric and sulfuric acids. In the 70s and 80s the main source of acid rain was sulfur (or sulphur in…
Tags: acid, acid rain, car, Climate change, coal, emissions, environmental, Europe, Gothenburg, nitric, nitrogen, plant, power, sulfur, sulphur, UK, US
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Science & Technology, Apr 28th, 2010,
Indonesia is making a rather bold move in the realm of renewable energy. How bold? They’ve recently launched a plan to tap volcano power for geothermal energy purposes. Considering their vast island chain (an archipelago of 17,000 islands) holds hundreds of volcanoes and at least 40% of the world’s geothermal energy potential, this kind of move really makes perfect sense. However, they’ve only been able to tap a small portion of that power and the cost of it all is an issue they are still contending with. Currently, Indonesia relies on the dirty power of coal. This is mainly because…
Tags: coal, geothermal energy, greenhouse gas emissions, Indonesia, project, renewable energy, volcanic power, volcanoes
Natural disasters, Politics, Apr 5th, 2010,
On March 28, 153 coal miners were trapped in the Wangjialing mine in Shanxi Province, northern China when the mine was suddenly flooded with water. More than one week later an amazing rescue is taking place. According to a CNN report, so far rescue workers have managed to save 115 miners. Two hundred people, as part of 50 rescue groups, were working around-the-clock to drain water, monitor gas and pull out miners, said Wang Jun, governor of Shanxi province where the mine is situated. On average, seven miners die every day in China, where safety levels are improving, yet still…
Tags: China, coal, disaster, flooded, mine, miners, miracle, rescue, Shanxi, Wangjialing
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Apr 2nd, 2010,
So-called ‘cloud computing’ – or basically ‘using the Internet’ to people like you and me – is largely dependent on coal-fired power stations. To be more precise, all Internet use isn’t cloud computing, but web-based computing is huge and increasing all the time. It allows access to all sorts of data and entertainment housed in massive servers or data centers, many of which rely on highly polluting coal. “Make IT Green: Cloud Computing and its Contribution to Climate Change”, shows how the launch of quintessential cloud computing devices like the Apple iPad, which offer users access to the “cloud” of…
Tags: Apple, cloud, coal, computing, Facebook, google, Greenpeace, Internet, power, report, Yahoo
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Mar 30th, 2010,
India is a country of over one billion inhabitants and already the fourth largest emitter of CO2. While India’s per capita emissions are still low, the South Asian powerhouse has a projected annual economic growth rate of 8-9%. This means a growing middle class and a concomitant demand for the hallmarks of affluent society, such as cars, televisions and other high-energy lifestyle products. Besides the obvious rises in greenhouse gas emissions and industrial pollution that go hand in hand with this kind of development, there is another looming problem: fossil fuels are running out. In order to meet the energy…
Tags: carbon, coal, development, economic, emissions, energy, growth, India, low, Parikh, Solar, strategy
Weird Stuff, Mar 4th, 2010,
Coal is known to be a top source of pollution. It’s the number one contributor to global warming. It’s even been associated with a number of health problems. Given these small bits of information, it doesn’t seem like any good can come from coal. However, designer Jim Zivic, sees and uses coal in a completely different light. Zivic creates sculptured tables from raw anthracite coal. Table options include: Honed (matte, smooth surface), Pewter Pour (molten pewter is applied to the coal), and Polished (very shiny, smooth black surface). He buys 14 tons of coal at a time from a mine…
Tags: anthracite coal, coal, furniture, Jim Zivic, Ralph Pucci, sculpture tables
