Digging deeper into coal

Re “Why the world still warms to coal,” Nov. 18

This article focuses on punishing coal users through economic sanctions. We are ignoring the basic fact that there is a huge demand for energy, and the best alternative-energy sources are regularly blocked by some of the same interests that are worried about coal.

Europe was held up as an example. France gets most its energy from nuclear power plants.

Are we ready yet to remove the obstacles to building more nuclear power plants? What about hydroelectric power? Which rivers are acceptable to dam? Whichever way we choose to generate power is going to have some sort of liability. But to ignore the demand part of the equation will result in a lot of whining with little resolution.

Tom Dietz

Tarzana

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There is little reason to blame developing countries for trying to improve their living standards, and it is unfair to call coal “the crack cocaine of the developing world.”

We are worrying that China is catching up with the United States in burning coal and emitting carbon dioxide, but we tend to forget that on a per capita basis the U.S. emits more than China or India.

This means we are more responsible for the problem and more addicted than China. It is quite immoral to portray the developing countries as the crux of the carbon emissions problem while we are contributing so much more than they do.

Alexey Voinov

Burlington, Vt.

The writer is a fellow of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont.

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I think coal should be the fuel of choice. We should add algal scrubbers to smokestacks at electric power plants. The algae turns black coal green, removing carbon dioxide and producing bio-diesel fuel when coal burns. There was a demonstration of this system in Arizona built by GreenFuel Technologies. Why isn’t this system mandatory for all coal-fired electrical plants?

Masse Bloomfield

Canoga Park