Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future (.)

Is the earth about ready to ecologically bite the big one via coal-caused global warming, or is this whole thing blown out of proportion? I don't know; but I think we should play it safe and listen to Jeff Goodell. I might not agree with his liberal politics, but I do respect the study he has done on `Big Coal', which is full of fascinating and scary stats and observations. According to Goodell, each American indirectly causes 20 tons of CO2 to spew out into the air each year! Also, the U.S. is known as the `Saudi Arabia of Coal', containing fully a quarter of the earth's coal supply, and consuming over a billion tons a year! Some coal trains are a mile-long! The last nuclear plant went on-line over 30 years ago because of the problem of what to do with nuclear waste.

He says the earth's ecology is at the tipping point of some serious global warming because of `Big Coal'. He says that we've already raised the average temperature one degree farenheit and are well on the way to a 3.5 degrees increase which will start a catastrophic series of events in nature that we don't even want to think about. He says that it would overall, society-wide, be cheaper to clean-up the coal emissions rather than pay for the health problems the dirty air causes.

The strange thing is that the coal issue is not even talked about very much, probably because most of us are so far removed from coal excavation or plants. Goodell said he had not even seen a piece of coal until he was 41 (presumably while writing this book.). By the way, I used to see coal as a kid because we had a coal furnace, but haven't seen any since. You could see lumps in the street also.

All of this reminds me a little of Y2K. Nobody got excited about it until it was almost too late. Then there was a all-out (and successful) effort to avert massive computer problems.

Now I think it's time to do something about the coal situation before it is too late. Is Goodell an alarmist or a realist? I hope he's only the former, but fear he is also the latter.

There are currently many books out there on peak oil, or energy concerns in general. However, probably not many people have read up on coal which is an old technology that's having a resurgence of sorts. This book does a nice job of filling in the gaps and talking not only about the pollution issues with coal, but also about supply and demand and what the coal industry is like in the US. I was surprised to find out how much power the railroads have, and how poorly-paid and unprotected the coal miners are. The impression I came away with is that the coal industry is a massively powerful voice in our society and is able to use that power to benefit itself, often against the good of the country. We will probably continue to hear more and more talk about clean coal technology in the near future. Anyone who wants to have some decent beginning knowledge of what's behind coal might enjoy reading this book.

The book gives an all around view of the coal mining industry, it sheds light on the political, social and economical forces that drive the industry. The industry can be seen from the miners, mine executives, land owners, and railroads points of view. Overall an interesting read.

I read this book along with two others "Color of Oil" and "The clean-tech revolution" to update my energy knowledge. This was clearly the best book of the lot - meticulously researched and well-written. Enough that it tightened my own behaviors: turning off lights were possible, using natural light if an option exists etc. etc.

[See my brief reviews for the other two books as well]

I think the main thing I took away from this book is not that the coal industry can't be trusted (it can't), and not that they destroy the environment (they do); it's that we should not fall for the public relations hype that wants to position coal as "the answer" to future oil shortages. In the near future, the coal industry will start a massive publicity campaign to let Americans know that "clean coal" is the energy solution for the next 200 years in our country. Don't believe it, coal is even dirtier and more harmful to your lungs than oil. Read this book to be informed on a subject of vital importance to our country.