Coal Kills

This was originally done for an assignment at school but I thought I would post it up on here:

Greenpeace is trying to bring awareness to the world that coal is killing people. Even the CDC admits that the Appalachian region of Kentucky has the highest amounts of caner deaths in the United States. What is in the Appalachian region of Kentucky? A coal company with rights for open mountain mining. This means that the coal company can blow the top off a mountain to get access to coal veins within that mountain. People that live in this area are given information about their drinking water. This includes information about inorganic contaminants, radioactive contaminants, and other pieces of information. A video on their website shows a violation of maximum contaminant level in the third quarter of 2007 and a warning that it can cause adverse health effects, liver or kidney problems, or nervous effects, and increased risk of getting cancer. The residents of Inez cannot even drink their own water due to the contaminants.

There are massive moral issues with continuing to use coal to power our cities. There are far too many consequences created by coal than it creates. The government has given the rights to companies to destroy our land and poison our people. Allowing people to live anywhere near a power plant that emits toxic carcinogens is wrong in every possible view. Our government cannot allow corporations to put profit before people!

For my community in Idaho we do not have much, if any, reliance on coal energy. Most of our energy is derived from hydro-dams. Because of that I have not seen a coal factory in person, but there are several older homes in the area originally had oil and coal burning furnaces which is about as efficient and toxic as coal burning factories. With our hydro-dams, we have several other problems with environmental impacts, such as migratory fish. With coal not being very readily available anywhere near where we are located it is unlike that coal will ever be used as a power source. We do have some wind farms around the area though, so our state is making a migration toward clean energy.

With the improvement of technologies there is no reason to even need coal for supplying power, heating homes, or production of products. According to Greenpeace, There are options such as solar power, geothermal technology, and wind can provide 96% of our electrical needs as well as 98% of our heating needs. The two energy needs account for almost all of our needs. If this were true why would our government even allow coal mining operations such as the one in Inez, KY operate? The problems that the coal mining is creating for those people is completely immoral, not to mention letting anyone live near a coal plant that emits toxic fumes. The government is allowing corporations to poison people without any consequences. This cannot be allowed any more. It is time that we say enough is enough and start moving toward clean energy. Contact your local politician and let them know you are tired of having coal kill!