Global Warming / Climate Instability in the Mountain State

Sequestering Carbon Dioxide: Another Coal Industry Scam

In the midst of a climate crisis and record energy prices, policy makers must not succumb to the false promise of carbon capture and storage (CCS), which would prolong dependence on dirty and dangerous energy sources and reward the world’s biggest polluters, says a new Greenpeace report.

The technology seeks to capture carbon dioxide from power plants and store it underground. But, despite being unproven and expensive, coal and power companies are advertising the scheme as a solution to global warming in order to justify building new coal-fired power plants, the single largest contributor to global warming.

The Greenpeace report, "False Hope: Why Carbon Capture and Storage Won’t Save the Climate," calls on governments to invest in safe, clean and proven energy technologies like wind and solar to find a long-term solution to the climate crisis.

"Carbon capture and storage is a scam. It is the ultimate coal industry pipe dream," said the report’s author, Emily Rochon, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace International. "Governments and businesses need to reduce their emissions – not search for excuses to keep burning coal."

"Those of us who live in the so-called ‘billion dollar coalfields’ are fed up with the coal industry’s false promises. We shouldn’t throw billions more in taxpayer money into this costly, unproven technology. Let’s take all that money and invest it renewable energy jobs for West Virginians," said Mingo County OVEC member Carol Young. OVEC helped release the report in WV.

Fraught with uncertainties about its effectiveness and cost, CCS technology is not expected to be commercially available until 2030, while the world’s leading climate experts have said global greenhouse gas emissions must peak no later than 2015 and be cut by at least half by 2050 to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.

Thus, even if the technology proved viable, it wouldn’t be available until long after the window for meaningful action to halt global warming has closed. Even if CCS reaches commercial viability, coal-fired power plant capacity is expanding so rapidly that as much as 70 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from power generation in 2050 may not be technically suited to CCS.

Learn more at www.greenpeace.org/ccs.

World CO2 Levels at Record High Level

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a record high, according to new figures that renew fears that climate change could begin to slide out of control.

Scientists at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii say that CO2 levels in the atmosphere now stand at 387 parts per million (ppm), up almost 40 percent since the industrial revolution and the highest for at least the last 650,000 years.

The figures also confirm that carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, is accumulating in the atmosphere faster than expected. The annual mean growth rate for 2007 was 2.14 ppm - the fourth year in the past six to see an annual rise greater than 2 ppm. From 1970 to 2000, the concentration rose by about 1.5 ppm each year, but since 2000 the annual rise has leapt to an average 2.1 ppm.

Although 173 countries have ratified the treaty, the United States has so far refused to sign onto the Kyoto Protocol to curb greenhouse gases.

A May 12 Charleston Gazette editorial noted, "To counteract Washington’s foot-dragging, Seattle’s mayor proposed that U.S. cities individually embrace the Kyoto plan, in defiance of national leaders.

The effort caught fire. The Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement was drafted, and city councils began voting to adopt Kyoto at the local level. At latest count, more than 800 cities have signed the pledge.

"Five West Virginia municipalities - Morgantown, Shepherdstown, Oak Hill, Fayetteville and (most recently) Hurricane - have endorsed Kyoto so far." 

Interestingly, scientist and OVEC volunteer Mel Tyree had talked with officials in Hurricane several months ago about this very issue.

You too can take action! Urge the mayor of your town to adopt Kyoto locally. Go to www.ohvec.org/globalwarming/ for information on how to take action at the local level.