Dear Editor,
I'm delighted that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and her delegation went to Washington, DC, and met with Vice-President Joe Biden with regards to the Clean Energy Summit of Caricom. I sure hope the outcome will be positive.
Any government that issues any licence to anyone to build a coal-fired plant in Jamaica must be held accountable for endangering the health, lives and well-being of the Jamaican people; because importing coal is like importing pollution.
I'm not going to listen to some self-serving businessman or some uninformed people. I'm going to listen to Jimmy Johnson, CEO of Duke Energy, the largest utility company in the United States, owners and operators of coal-fired plants across that country. The dangers of coal are well documented and it shouldn't be in the country's energy mix. In China they can hardly breathe in their own country due to the burning of coal.
The world's largest economies and carbon polluters -- United States and China -- signed an agreement recently at the G20 conference in Beijing to lessen their carbon footprint significantly. What is so ironic is that these two countries seem to be moving away from coal while Jamaica appears to be endorsing and promoting it.
The argument about clean coal is not very convincing, in my view. If this is so feasible the two richest economies and polluters, as well as producers of coal, would have utilised this long ago. At this point, clean energy seems to be a myth -- maybe even propaganda. Besides, renewable energy comes in cheaper than coal in some US markets, with solar at about six cents per kWh and wind at four cents per kWh. Incidentally, these two countries are also large investors in renewable energy.
Based on scientific research, coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. It contains mercury, lead and arsenic. When burned, it can cause cancer, asthma, emphysema, and other diseases, and is a leading contributor to acid rain, greenhouse gases, and climate change. Let us not forget, the massive coal-ash pollution of the Dan River in Eden, North Carolina, last year.
The Jamaican people ought to come together with one voice and declare we don't want any coal in our country.
Noel Mitchell
nlmworld@yahoo.com
Westchester, New York
No such thing as clean coal
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I'm delighted that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and her delegation went to Washington, DC, and met with Vice-President Joe Biden with regards to the Clean Energy Summit of Caricom. I sure hope the outcome will be positive.
Any government that issues any licence to anyone to build a coal-fired plant in Jamaica must be held accountable for endangering the health, lives and well-being of the Jamaican people; because importing coal is like importing pollution.
I'm not going to listen to some self-serving businessman or some uninformed people. I'm going to listen to Jimmy Johnson, CEO of Duke Energy, the largest utility company in the United States, owners and operators of coal-fired plants across that country. The dangers of coal are well documented and it shouldn't be in the country's energy mix. In China they can hardly breathe in their own country due to the burning of coal.
The world's largest economies and carbon polluters -- United States and China -- signed an agreement recently at the G20 conference in Beijing to lessen their carbon footprint significantly. What is so ironic is that these two countries seem to be moving away from coal while Jamaica appears to be endorsing and promoting it.
The argument about clean coal is not very convincing, in my view. If this is so feasible the two richest economies and polluters, as well as producers of coal, would have utilised this long ago. At this point, clean energy seems to be a myth -- maybe even propaganda. Besides, renewable energy comes in cheaper than coal in some US markets, with solar at about six cents per kWh and wind at four cents per kWh. Incidentally, these two countries are also large investors in renewable energy.
Based on scientific research, coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. It contains mercury, lead and arsenic. When burned, it can cause cancer, asthma, emphysema, and other diseases, and is a leading contributor to acid rain, greenhouse gases, and climate change. Let us not forget, the massive coal-ash pollution of the Dan River in Eden, North Carolina, last year.
The Jamaican people ought to come together with one voice and declare we don't want any coal in our country.
Noel Mitchell
nlmworld@yahoo.com
Westchester, New York
No such thing as clean coal
-->