Last month I read an opinion in Britain’s Telegraph publication that in many places around the world there is no “green” transition to renewable energy occurring. I wondered about this for awhile and did some of my own research to see if what the article was saying had any validity to it. Unfortunately I found it to be a fair assessment of what was happening. And whether you believe the current climate shift is being caused by humanity’s industrial age pollution or not (i.e., some scientists state the world has suffered through major climate change periods thousands of years in the past and thus the current shift is just a “natural” phenomenon), wouldn’t it behoove us to try to minimize the extent of this shift in order to minimize the coming consequences which many scientists also say could be quite disastrous?
Serious consideration of the effects of climate change on our world took place at the first global convention held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in May of 1992. The approach developed at this meeting of world leaders was ratified by the 197 countries in attendance, including the US. Since then, many countries have been steadily improving their ability to minimize the impact on the world’s natural climate change defenses. The US in particular has done this in many ways, but the most notable is in how it has reduced the number of the worst polluters America had, i.e., those reported to be causing the most effect on climate change.
Power plants, which produce the electricity needed to run a society, were deemed the major players in creating the pollution considered to be the most significant component of the many factors affecting climate change.
Fossil fueled power plants specifically were being blamed for helping to create our current climate change dilemma with “coal” fueled ones the worst of these. So what has world governments been doing about this? In the US, the last coal fueled power plant built and placed into service was in 2013. So for the last ten years, there have been no new coal plants placed in operation in the US, and the number of older ones have been steadily declining, i.e., removed from service – from 518 in operation across the US in 2013 to a total today of only 220. In contrast, countries like India and especially China, have continued to operate and to build new coal fueled power plants. India, for example, currently has 173 coal fueled power plants in operation with 32 new plants under construction. China incredibly has 3,092 coal fueled power plants in operation and over 100 new ones under construction. China is also currently building at least 14 new coal plants in other countries around the world at a time when many scientists believe the use of coal should be eliminated and all new power needs generated should instead be from green or renewable energy sources.
Astoundingly, China is also the only country in the world that still builds and continues to use steam locomotives (ones that use coal to create the steam that drives the locomotive). These engines look a lot like the old steam locomotives in the cowboy movies depicted in America’s old west with thick black smoke trailing above and behind the train as it chugs through the countryside. Although the Chinese do have newer high speed trains in use, their steam powered trains are used extensively for industrial purposes as well as in the outer regions of their country for both industrial and personnel transport purposes. Thus although China states they support the world’s efforts to fight climate change, in practicality, with nearly 3,100 coal plants in service and over 100 new ones under construction, they are continuing to do whatever is necessary for their country to function; demonstrating once again that actions speak louder than words. Bottomline, macro-economics and the desire to maintain a certain standard of living is driving the transition from a “fossil” fueled society to a “renewables” fueled society with some countries (like the US) truly making an effort to change while others (like China) are only making promises. Until all countries live up to the promises they make at the global conferences being held on climate change, mankind’s ability to minimize our affect on the world’s climate will continue to ineffective. Lets just hope, sadly, that the mega-storms climate change produces affects primarily those countries that have done the least to prevent them.
