James Hansen takes Britain to task over coal power plants

February 18, 8:24 AMDenver Weather ExaminerTony Hake

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James Hansen calls coal-fired power plants 'death
factories'.  (AP/Charlie Riedel)
Who's who in the global warming debate?  Check out our
slideshow below.

Dr. James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), wrote a strongly worded editorial in Britain’s The Observer taking the nation to task over its decision to authorize the construction of a new coal fired power plant.  Using much of the over the top language he is known for, Hansen warns that Britain’s and other nation’s dependence on coal power will be the demise of the planet.

The headline itself – “Coal-fired power stations are death factories. Close them” – gives an indication of just how serious Dr. Hansen believes the threat of coal power is.  Pointing the finger squarely at the UK, the United States and Germany as the three biggest polluters per capita, he advocates that a complete and total moratorium on the construction of coal power plants in required.  Coal, according to Hansen, is the single biggest pollutant and contributor of carbon dioxide. 

Along with the usual warnings of rising oceans and increased temperatures, entire species of plant and animal life could be extinguished due to the carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere.  Dr. Hansen says that the proposed Kingsnorth power plant in the UK would alone be responsible for the extermination of 400 species during its useful life.  In Hansen’s words, “coal is the single greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet.”

The trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains. Coal-fired power plants are factories of death.
- Dr. James Hansen

We recently reported on a study that shows global warming gases increasing at an alarming rate, above previous predictions.  One as yet unanswered question by Hansen and others that are sounding this alarm – How is the world expected to meet power demands for its population without new power plants? 

In the case of the United States, coal provides 48.4 percent of the nation’s power.  That power has to come from somewhere.  Nuclear power, the most logical alternative, isn’t an acceptable source in its current form according to Hansen and others within the movement.  Wind and solar are simply ‘feel good’ measures that contribute minimally to our power needs and in their current form will never be capable of doing more. 

Without electricity here and especially in less developed nations, untold human suffering would certainly ensue.  We simply cannot exist without.  How do we reconcile this?