First Write Up

Aaron Rucinski
1/21/10
Environmental Science
Coal’s Impact on the World
For my project, I am interested in looking into the rising levels of coal and how it will affect the world as we know it. In the past, the United States was the number one user of coal powered factories and power plants, but now with modern technology, and lot of that has changed and become powered by petroleum. Another country took our place, China. China is the number one user of coals in all of their factories because it is much cheaper to use coal to power it than making nuclear power plants or hydro electric dams. Coal emits CO2 which is just further worsening the climate problem that people have been talking about for the past 10 years. This quote talks about how coal is such a necessity in China and is acting as the main supply of energy for the Chinese people. “China currently has more than 21,000 coalmines in operation, and around 2,000 coal-fired power stations, with plans to build at least 500 more. Zeng Peiyan, a vice-premier for the nation, said that coal output had doubled in the last five years, and experts predict that the country will burn 2.5 billion tons of the material this year.” While this is bad, it is said by the EIA that the coal production and usage in America is dropping drastically as the Untied States starts to switch over to other fossil fuels and alternative energies such as wind and solar power. Although things are getting better and coal consumption America is going down they are still producing a lot of CO2 like said in this quote, “The 77 million tons of coal American Electric Power burns each year pumps well over a hundred million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, making it the nation's biggest polluter.” This coal pollution that is emitted is not good for anything, the earth, the plants and people. Due to Chinas need for coal power, pollution there is at an all time high. “China itself is suffering immediate effects as well. Smoking is already popular among the populace, and cancer rates are climbing rapidly thanks to the pollution, which is thought to cause roughly 400,000 premature deaths annually.” That is horrible and is a sign that things need to change quickly before they get any worse. That is why I want to research this and find if people are trying to fix b finding better methods to burn the coal without releasing so much CO2 or by just stop burning coal all together and trying to find a solution to the problem that has been in front of us for years.

-Mecanik-2009. "A New Green Idea for Dirty Coal Emissions - CBS Evening News - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. .
This gives a great idea on how to lessen the pollution from coal but it also gives good information on how much CO2 is emitted by the United States every year. It also talks about in depth the process of stopping the CO2 emittions and how they will be going about using a method called Carbon Capture.


-"Coal emissions blanket China with pollution." Independent news on natural health, nutrition and more. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. .

This article talks about the crisis in China, and how much CO2 is being emitted into the atmosphere by china alone. China has so much pollution from all of their coal energy, that it is acting as a blanket causing deaths, increasing cancer rates and lowering the life span of the Chinese populace.

"Coal consumption (most recent) by country." NationMaster - World Statistics, Country Comparisons. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. .

This Chart gave me an accurate representation of how much coal is used in each country. It also allows me to figure out how much CO2 is being generated as a country and per person.This chart can be shown in many different ways whether it is a pie chart or a line graph. The pie chart in my opinion shows how more than 50 percent of the coal usage is done by either the United States or China.