Coal's Effect On The Environment And Climate Change

Coal has long been considered the best fuel source by companies, producers, and consumers. However, recent studies show that the use of coal is a lot more dangerous than anyone could have thought. Though it does create jobs, the effect it has on the environment and climate change is substantial. Coal is by far one of the most polluting forms of electricity that people use, and the world is running dangerously low of it. Coal can be a safe and efficient source of energy, but people have to change how they are obtaining it, and the process in which they convert it into energy. Until this happens, coal will remain as a top contributor in climate change. In 2011 alone, the United States released 1.7 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere just from these power plants, which makes coal burning power plants the leading contributor in carbon dioxide emission (Union of Concerned Scientists). Burning coal as an energy source is dangerous and reckless, and is the biggest threat that the world faces today.

This process is called strip mining, and can leave devastating effects on the environment, and the organisms that live there. Strip mining, also called surface mining, is the process of digging through a mountain to get coal. All of the minerals from the mountain are washed away and leaves a barren wasteland behind. Though it does create jobs, it completely destroys entire biomes, and leaves water contamination that can remain there for decades. This type of mining is not uncommon, as strip mining makes up over 80% of the world’s mines (www.greenpeace.org). The first step of making coal a safe and usable source of energy is to change the way that people obtain