There are so many difficult issues and facets to think about and deal with regarding the global warming issue. It is apparent that world leaders are now panicking, because the Kyoto target date is coming faster than the antidote to the greenhouse gas emission problems in the world. There has been so much talk about global warming over the past few years. Media, environmentalists, activist groups, public and world leaders have all preached the danger the world is in because of greenhouse gas emissions. The fact is, that we are all contributors and we all need to work together to find a plan to help lower emissions put into the autmosphere. In Ontario, our Premier decided he would help out by shutting down all coal electricity plants in Ontario. He said he would accomplish this by the year 2007, then pushed back to 2009 and has since targeted a 2014 deadline. Do you suppose there is a reason for him pushing this date back?
The rest of the world doesn't seem to be shutting down coal plants, countries like the U.S. and China are buidling more. The fact is, they are expanding, and Ontario is at risk of not only power interruption, but also job loss and decline in economy. The United States and China are building new low emission, high efficiency coal burning electricity generating plants. Coal gasification is just one of the ways to achieve this. From the old, new technologies have been re-discovered that clean up coal fired power plants and can bring down emission rates as low as that of natural gas. This conversion technique is not only being looked at for coal plants but also for manufacturing processes and the cars we drive.
The U.S. government posted an article from the U.S. Department of Energy talking about Gasification Technology.
More interesting facts on Gasification Technology can be found here.
China replacing old coal plants with new ones, read more here.
The rest of the world continues to make coal generation a major part of their future. Instead of creating problems in the long run in Ontario, the government should do what is best for Ontario and keep the continuity in our electricty program, as well as dealing with emission problems. This would mean chosing a technology that is best for our existing infastructures. There is more emission reduction technology out there that should be looked at. Examples of this technology are Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR's) and scrubbers to clean coal and capture harmful gases before they go out the stack. Any way you look at it, it will take money to retrofit existing facilities or build new ones posing a threat to increased energy costs for Ontario.
For more information on SCR and scrubber clean coal technologies, click here.
The underlying product of these set backs in the closure of Ontario's coal burning electricity plants is the fact that coal is an essential power source in the production of elecricity. At this time, there is nothing available that is dependable enough to meet the electrical demands faced daily and replace this reliable generating power. "Pulling the plug" on coal in Ontario and taking it out of the equation will indeed, create more and more frequent blackouts and power interruptions. What does this mean to you? However, the Premier maintains continuity in his orginal statement to shut down coal fired plants by 2014. I suppose we could buy our power from the U.S. What kind of power would we be buying you say?..ahhh, coal generated power....mmmm...now that makes sense to me....NOT!
Keep in mind that there are many contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. One of the emissions that focus seems to be on right now is C02. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't C02 something that is lapped up by trees and vegetation as a means to survive? I wonder about the deforestry of our trees and rainforests and what kind of effect this has had on our global warming issue in the world. Has this activity helped knock us off balance here? Let's look at the whole picture.
Chart provided by: Wikipedia Encyclopedida
See more about greenhouse gas here.
Newspaper ad provided by: The Tillsonburg Independent News via Power Workers Union. See more compelling examples here.
There is an obvious need to put a plan in place to clean up emissions and if all the players were on the same page, this could be easier to accomplish than we think.
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