Coal: not necessary for our future

Back in the 1880s when people first started building coal-fired electricity generators, we had no idea that we were messing with the delicate balance of our atmosphere. But now we do know: coal contributes 20% of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Australia is currenlty the world’s 4th largest coal producer. We use 80% of our coal ourselves, which is why we have the world’s highest GHG emissions per person. Then we export the rest of it, supplying about 30% of the market as the world’s number one exporter (Indonesia comes in second, with just 13%).

A quick fix?
The coal industry claims that they can fix this problem. They’ve offered clean coal as a potential solution. Unfortunately, even if they can figure out a way to make it work, it couldn’t get off the ground until 2020 at the earliest, and we can’t afford to keep burning coal until they come up with a way to make it safe.

They also claim that if Australia doesn’t supply this coal, then “someone else” will – Indonesia, Venezuela, etc. Which is a funny thing to say, since the “someone elses” in those countries are the same companies that operate coal mines and coal power here: Xstrata, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, and so on. They’re multinationals who dig up resources all over the world, keeping the profits for their CEOs.

But other countries don’t have as much coal as we do. And if it gets harder and more expensive to buy coal, many countries will just look for something cheaper and easier to work with… renewables, for example.

Why shouldn’t we do the same?
The coal industry claims that if Australia doesn’t dig up and burn all it’s coal, our economy will collapse. Since coal only provides 1.3% of the jobs in Australia and 5% of our GDP (3% exports, 2% direct), this is an overstatement, to say the least. It’s not nearly as important as it thinks it is. More of our GDP comes from finance and insurance businesses (7.3%) than from coal. There are more people working in Great Barrier Reef tourism (63,000) than have coal mining jobs (28,000).

So why are we letting the coal industry set the terms of our Emissions Trading Scheme? They don’t provide any value that couldn’t be acheived some other way. According to a report from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource economics, if we do everything right to reduce our GHG emissions, our GDP in the year 2050 will only be 247% of what it is today, instead of the 281% we could have if we keep messing up the atmosphere. Gee, how will we cope?

Let’s get rid of coal-fired electricity
I strongly support a ban on all new coal power plants and coal mines – as well as preventing the extra pollution, there’s no point creating new jobs we’ll just have to cut later on. But the people already working in the industry need a gradual phase-out of our exisiting plants, to give them time to look into new opportunities and training. I still think their best bet is to look into the emerging geothermal and solar-thermal industries, since there’s a good chance that they’ll be located in the same places we get our coal from now and be able to provide reliable work.

Plus, a gradual phase-out gives us time to sort out what alternatives we’re going to switch to, to see what works and try new things without worrying that we’ll be left without any power at all.

If you want to help get the phase-out moving along, there’s a few things you can do.

• Visit Green Electricity Watch to find out who you can call to ask to switch you away from coal power and onto renewable power.
• If you’re in Victoria, join the Switch Off Hazelwood campaign to get Australia’s oldest and dirtiest coal power station retired. Read about their most recent protest to get an idea of what it’s like.
• Read Guy Pearse’s Quarry Vision (scroll down a bit, there’s a sample), or watch this interview where he explains more about how the coal industry is working to get it’s lobbyists in government advisory positions.
• If you know of any other anti-coal actions going on, I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Coal is our enemy – not as if we were at war, but as if we were junkies, hooked on a substance that’s hurting us. We need to wean ourselves off it, starting today.