The world is so far behind on this that we are not even in the envelop. We can’t stop the turn toward hotter climates and more frequent and severe storms, but we can slow it down and mitigate it somewhat if we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
This is something the world is not doing, in spite of promises.
According to one website the top 10 polluters are the following
- China, with more than 10,065 million tons of CO2 released.
- United States, with 5,416 million tons of CO2.
- India, with 2,654 million tons of CO2.
- Russia, with 1,711 million tons of CO2.
- Japan, 1,162 million tons of CO2.
- Germany, 759 million tons of CO2.
- Iran, 720 million tons of CO2.
Note that number one China has almost twice the amount of number two, the USA, and that the USA has almost twice the amount of the next country, India.
One more sad example sh0wing we value lucre over the health of our planet and its inhabitants. The word “lucre” here is an apt choice instead of “money” because many of these top-polluting countries have civilizations going back many millennia and it is sad to see the resultant lack of wisdom.
Equally scary is the fact that various leaders in our country have proposed such idiocies as the Manatee County Commissioners who considered taking money to dump unwanted coal ash on top of Piney Point where it would be extremely vulnerable to spilling down into Tampa Bay. Miraculously this did not happen.
Also Puerto Rico outlaws coal ash disposal so it is barged to Jacksonville and then sent to Georgia for disposal in a landfill.
Read the original article here at NPR WMFE.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
Vast majority of power plants, including Stanton, violate federal regulations with toxic coal ash, report says
The cooling towers at the Stanton Energy Center, a coal-fired power plant, are seen behind a home in Orlando. Photo courtesy NPR
A new report says that 96% of power plants nationwide — including Stanton Energy Center in Orlando — are violating federal regulations aimed at addressing the toxic legacy of coal ash.
The report from the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice says the coal ash dumps are continuing to contaminate groundwater with unsafe levels of toxic chemicals.
Coal ash is the waste that remains after coal is burned for electricity. Stanton is not at the top of the list, but Abel Russ of the Environmental Integrity Project raises concern about that.
“Some of those low-ranked sites are not necessarily clean. They might be ranked low because they don’t have enough monitoring wells, and so they don’t actually have the right kind of data.”
At Stanton, the report says monitoring wells are poorly placed for measuring contamination, a violation of the regulations. OUC, which oversees Stanton, says the coal ash landfill is safe.
Lisa Evans of Earthjustice says power plants are doing little or nothing to address the problem.
“There are solutions. There are solutions to clean up. There are solutions for relatively safe disposal. This is not a problem that can’t be solved. The problem is the intransigence of the industry in not being willing to solve the problem.”
Tags: coal ash
