I was reading an article by Jonathan Thompson on Thursday about the transition of the US coal market to China. Thompson talked about how the popularity of coal in America is declining rapidly, which would seem good for the world. If the the world's second largest energy consumer and emissions producer stopped burning coal, that would be good, right? Wrong. According to Thompson, US coal companies are doing what the tobacco industry did twenty five years ago; move to international markets. Chief among these markets is China, whose projected consumption would lead to an overall increase in coal production and exportation.
This transition raises a critical question; Is this shift from America to other nations worth the money? Evidently, a decrease in consumption of coal in the US will reduce our carbon footprint, but net global consumption of coal will be on the rise. More consumption will lead to more sales of coal by American producers, which will increase the value of the coal industry. More consumption will also lead to more pollution. Is the pragmatic growth of China worth the smog they will leave in their wake?
The costs of this transition far outweigh the benefits. Passing the habit on to someone else does not solve our problem, does not solve everyone's problem; how to treat the environment. We as a global community must work together to preserve the planet we all share. To fall in line with what we've been discussing in my English class, people from different places must put what they have in common before what they uniquely value. If we can not put the coal behind us as a global society, we won't be able to solve our energy problem.
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