The cartoon Buckets in the same edition of The News contained the logic that Damian failed to comprehend: that at best, you are polluting at a reduced rate and not in any way lowering carbon emissions.
But burning high quality coal is irrelevant if the power station does not incorporate the technologies required to remove the dangerous pollutants arising from the smoke stacks, rather than releasing them to the environment.
Power stations emit 30 toxic pollutants and are the single-biggest source of dangerous sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and fine particle pollution (PM2.5) in Australia.
Take a look at the pollution generated from burning the ‘‘world’s cleanest coal’’ and the effect that this has on health of residents in the region most exposed to those emissions and there is sufficient reason to close all coal-fired power stations; now that we have viable alternatives in the way we generate electricity.
Air pollution from the five NSW power stations (burning the cleanest coal) is estimated to lead to 279 deaths or 2614 ‘‘years of life lost’’ every year for people aged 30 to 99. (Reference: ‘‘The health burden of fine particle pollution from electricity generation in NSW,’’ Dr Ben Ewald, B.Med, PhD, November 2018.)
Health effects are observed at all levels of exposure, indicating that within any large population there is a wide range of susceptibility and that some people are at risk even at the lowest end of the observed concentration range.
Although technologies exist to capture particulate matter and dangerous gaseous pollutants rather than releasing them to the environment, the use of these technologies is rare in Australia despite being required in most other countries. There does not appear to be any political will or commercial responsibility to make coal-fired electricity generation safe for Australians or to address global climate change.
If Australia is unwilling to be environmentally responsible, how are we to expect better from emerging economies?
- Rolf Weber, Shepparton
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