"Clean" Coal

[wolven7]

Gangstagrass, "Big Branch".

So I was watching CNN (always a bad idea, and doubly so during election season), and I'm listening to political puppets, and wondering how many of these people actually believe their own bullshit, when a commercial for "clean coal" came on. I shit you not. I swear, it's like, every four years, the lobby for so-called clean coal pops up again, forcing people to take seriously a thing which is literally, tangibly, Killing them. It's all, "oh hey everybody! I know you haven't heard a DAMN thing from us in the past three years-- nothing about all the reforms and cleaner air regulations we were supposed to enact-- but don't worry about that because energymoneyfreedomfreedomfreedom."

Our roommate was like, "look, the entire state of West Virginia; they have a lot of money." And I said, just as he was amending his statement to this effect, "NO: the people of WV are, for the most part, dirt fucking poor. The people they WORK FOR have a lot of money. And somehow they've convinced the people who work for them that it's in their best interests to continue to work for an industry that is KILLING THEM."

I mean, how the fuck is it better, easier, to go into a coal mine and DIE, to watch your friends and family DIE, than it is to get together with an industry that won't result in your death or dismemberment? All of the people digging and refining coal could be building new factories to make solar panels, wind turbines, computers. Bring in bio-engineers to figure out new ways to mine and utilize coal, rather that just digging it up and burning it.

"Hey ya'll! I know what we can do! Let's A) all get new jobs building a solar panel manufacturing plant, for B) a company which will train us, so that C) we can Then Work There!"

"Well my daddy, granddaddy, blahblahblah mined coal and that's good enough fer me." No it's not, actually. You've got black-lung and you're missing three fingers on your left hand.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW. And that's to coal and oil companies companies, the people who side with them, and US culture as a whole. Learn something new.

Enjoy the song.

Comments

[plantyhamchuk.livejournal.com]

I asked a good friend of mine, who got his PhD in some type of engineering at GaTech, about 'clean coal' and the scubbers that are used in an attempt to clean carbon emissions. Now, granted, this was a couple of years ago, but he told me that they don't really work, and that he still thought nuclear was a better option. FWIW.