Dealing with the coal plant menace

Dealing with the coal plant menace

Red Constantino, Climate and Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace Southeast Asia

There is no such thing as "clean coal", a fact Southeast Asia
is slowly coming to terms with. Recent years witnessed a decline
in the position traditionally occupied by the global coal
industry due to the growing evidence of the role that coal-based
power generation has played in displacing communities, wrecking
host environments and subsequently destroying the climate.

Coal, the most carbon intensive among fossil fuels, emits 80
percent more carbon per unit of energy than gas and 29 percent
more than oil. Combustion of coal releases tremendous amounts of
carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas responsible for
global warming.

Along with other greenhouse gases, massive man-made CO2
release creates an artificial greenhouse effect, thickening the
natural canopy of gases in the atmosphere and causing more heat
to become trapped. Consequently, global temperature increases,
throwing the world's climate off its natural balance and into
chaos; thus the term climate change, which is often used
interchangeably with global warming.

Sea levels are projected to rise in alarming rates due to the
thermal expansion of oceans and loss of mass from glaciers and
ice caps, posing direct threats to archipelagic countries such as
Indonesia and the Philippines.

Scientists project that in the 21st century, total increase in
sea levels may go as high as 89 cm, a figure which seems small
until one realizes that increases of as little as 30 cm can cause
a retreat of shoreline by 30 meters.

A distressing spread of diseases including malaria and dengue
borne by insects thriving in warm temperatures are also
anticipated with the projected increase in the severity and
intensity of extreme weather events. According to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, impacts of global
warming will be greatest among developing countries in terms of
loss of life and its effects on investment and the economy.

Despite the enormous amount of resources spent in packaging
and re-packaging coal-based energy production, the global coal
industry has been largely unsuccessful in erasing the stigma
caused by coal-fired power plants on unfortunate victim
communities, darkening skies, widespread lung disease and other
health problems, and severely degraded environments.

All coal plants, without exception, discharge amounts of
pollution significant enough to seriously affect the health of
surrounding communities and environmental well-being. This is not
surprising given the polluting material coal plants regularly
release.

Coal burning releases cadmium, for instance, a toxic heavy
metal listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)
as a hazardous air pollutant which tends to stick to fly ash and
is the source of a wide range of ailments associated with heart,
kidney and liver disease. Coal plants are also notorious for
releasing cancer-causing hexavalent chromium.

Coal plants emit gases like nitrogen oxide (Nox) and sulfur
dioxide (Sox) that are responsible for acid rain and constitute
toxins deadly to humans. Chronic exposure to SOx emissions
causes diseases similar to chronic bronchitis. Coal-fired power
stations are also hugely responsible for releasing hazardous and
carcinogenic substances such as lead and arsenic.

But a more lethal substance the world is only beginning to
understand, One which poses direct risks to communities hosting
coal-fired power plants is mercury. Mercury is a toxin so deadly,
exposure to it has been associated with serious neurological and
developmental damage to humans, ranging from subtle losses of
sensory abilities and delays in developmental milestones to birth
defects, birth tremors and even death.

A fact largely ignored by the Southeast Asian governments is
that coal plants constitute, according to Carol Browner, a former
administrator of the U.S. EPA, "the greatest source of mercury
emissions" in the United States. The EPA and groups such as the
U.S. National Wildlife Federation (NWF) have long contended that
coal-fired power plants in the U.S. are the single largest source
of mercury pollution responsible for 33 percent of the total
mercury emissions from all known manmade American sources.
Emissions of the neurotoxin in the U.S. are reportedly over 50
tons/year. Its impact is projected by the United Nations
Environment Program to be greatly exacerbated by a warming world.

Mercury is so deadly all it takes is 1/70th of a teaspoon to
contaminate a 10-hectare lake to the point where fish from the
lake are not fit for human consumption. While mercury emitted
from coal-fired power stations has a deposition rate of up to 600
miles, a single 100 megawatt (MW) coal plant produces
approximately 25 pounds of mercury a year.

Notwithstanding all its other pollutants, the toxicity and the
amount of mercury regularly emitted by coal plants is enough to
jolt the public and our government agencies into thinking hard
before falling for self-serving assurances of safety emanating
from coal plant pushers.

When corporations tell us their facilities are safe and
operating within legal standards, do we believe them?
Communities and governments should realize such assurances of
safety become meaningless, especially when one knows most
governments in the region are virtually incapable of monitoring
such emissions facilities constantly.

It is the height of arrogance, here defined as ignorance
backed by overconfidence, for government agencies to start
dispensing their power to permit when such authority is not
matched with the power to protect the people from hazards
associated with these dirty projects.

It is high time to phase out coal along with all the subsidies
that it has for too long enjoyed undeservedly, not tomorrow but
today. It is time to phase in the wide-ranging support necessary
for the uptake of clean energy. The survival and sustainable
development interests of Southeast Asia demands it. The abundance
of renewable energy resources in the region warrants it. The
future of the entire planet requires it.

The writer was among the speakers at the 9th Annual CoalTrans
Asia Conference from June 9-11 in Nusa Dua, Bali.