The following article is a good position paper about the effects of coal burning on humanity.  Coal is not an acceptable form of energy in its presently used state. It emits sulfur dioxide and related toxins which tend to destroy tissues in the body.  Because it can be mined cheaply, and stolen from native populations for a pittance with the help of clever attorneys and deceitful Senators, because the Black Lung consequences of mining have been abated by carefully detailed health plans and protective funds that minimize corporate responsibility, because it is so profitable, Coal continues to be mined and used to power electric stations - causing the death of thousands of Americans every year due to pollutants.  One problem with our system of economy, is it does not always fully consider the long term penalties associated with short term high dollar figure gains, such as Coal Mining.  The long term penalties in human flesh and environmental destruction beg for research into better sources of energy that cost less in terms of lives and remediation.  By the time the Coal runs out, most of the world's ecosystems will be permanently damaged. And, sadly, people have been conditioned not to care about long term consequences of an energy policy like Coal, and also, even when reading the truth about the future of its own self-destruction, humanity doesn't recognize it as the truth and prefers to live in self-denial.

Az Daily Star, Comments, Thursday, 17 February 2000

U.S. industry still mad as a hatter for coal

By Mark Wenzler

Two hundred years ago, mercury was considered a wonder drug for treating
venereal disease. During the mid-19th century, pills laced with mercury
sold briskly as cures for everything from intestinal blockages to inflammation 
of the lungs.

Even though everyone knew that hat makers who used mercury to shape hats
often went ``mad as a hatter,'' science didn't understand until the
beginning of the 20th century that mercury caused irreversible brain
damage.

Today, the idea of medicinal mercury is laughable. Drug companies and
nearly all the industries that once relied on this chemical found far better
alternatives years ago. Still, 52 tons of mercury were pumped into our air
and dumped into the water and soil last year.

The source? Coal-burning power plants that are by far the largest source
of all mercury pollution in the United States. In more than 40 states,
mercury contamination of the food chain is so severe that health officials have
banned consumption of certain fish by pregnant women and children who are
most susceptible to the toxic effects of this deadly metal.

Until recently, however, few questions were asked about the dangers of air
pollution from coal. Now we know that besides mercury poisoning, burning
coal is linked to asthma, respiratory disease and premature death.

Ominous warnings first appeared in 1930 in Belgium when emissions from
coal-powered factories killed scores of people. Then in 1948, 600
Londoners died from smog linked to open-grate coal fires used for home heating.

Four years later, stagnant air over London again trapped smog and soot
from millions of chimneys. At midday, visibility dropped to 6 feet, and buses
could operate only with a guide walking ahead in the street.

This ``killer fog'' left 4,000 residents dead. An additional 1,000
Londoners died from coal pollution in 1956, the year Parliament passed a law
severely restricting the burning of coal in homes.

Despite scores of technological advances that have revolutionized our
quality of life since the '50s, the extraction of energy from coal hasn't
changed in 200 years. Few people realize, for example, that U.S. utility
companies are generating electricity with equipment that includes several
hundred coal-fired units built in the 1950s, when deadly pollution plagued
London.

And, except for the addition of 500-foot smokestacks that pump pollution
higher into the air than a household chimney, these ancient generators
operate today without any sort of pollution control devices.

Air pollution from coal sickens and kills people because of deadly
byproducts. Coal-burning electric utilities produce 6 million tons of
nitrogen oxides, one-third of all annual emissions in the United States.
Nitrogen oxide is the basic ingredient of ozone smog, an odorless,
colorless gas so caustic it can destroy lung cells.

In a typical summer, smog triggers 6.2 million asthma attacks. It also
sends an estimated 159,000 people to the emergency room, and 69,000 are admitted
to the hospital.

Coal-burning utilities also release two-thirds of all sulfur-dioxide
pollution in this country (13 million tons). Sulfur-dioxide is a key
ingredient in fine particles of soot that are linked to as many as 45,000
premature deaths in the United States annually. The elderly and people
with heart and lung disease are at greatest risk of premature death from soot
in the air.

Finally, electric utilities burning coal also emit 2 billion tons of
carbon dioxide, about 36 percent of total U.S. emissions annually. Carbon dioxide
is the most prevalent global warming pollutant in the atmosphere, and it
remains active for up to 100 years.

Today, the harm to public health and the environment from coal combustion
is widely known, and many nations are trying to discourage its use by
reducing government subsidies for coal.

China, for example, halved its coal-subsidy rates in 1984, and since then
consumption has gradually declined. Similar steps are being taken by
developed and developing countries around the world.

Yet as other nations strive to increase energy efficiency and switch to
renewable sources, the appetite for coal by electric utilities in the
United States continues to grow.

In 1998, power plants burned 134 percent more coal than in 1973;
non-utility coal use, on the other hand, dropped 40 percent during the same 25-year
period. Last year, nine-tenths of all coal production in the U.S. went to
generate electricity.

The U.S. Department of Health now ranks mercury as the third most deadly
chemical in our environment. Yet despite quantum advancements in far
safer, less polluting energy sources such as wind and solar power, demand for
coal is still growing with no end in sight.

Between now and 2015, use of this fuel is projected to rise 20 percent.
Ironically, 21st-century America, it appears, is still mad as a hatter for
coal.

Mark Wenzler is environmental counsel with the National Environmental
Trust. This piece was distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.