This is for talk only. What can we here in the war room do to stop the use of coal? Such as making alternatives a more favorable option. As you are probably thinking, this is a very difficult thing to do. If you like challenge, and you care about the natural environment, then welcome into the war room!

Suicide. If your dead you wont use coal and you wont pester those who do with your self righteous BS.

…and I suppose if you mention the word "nuclear" you do so at your own peril. The fact that a reactor produces next to nil greenhouse gases always seems to be overlooked by the "green" fraternity. Yes there is nuclear waste that has to be disposed of like burying deep down in a geologically stable environment. Yes the operation and the design of the plant is critical for safety reasons but hey, the world has come a long way from the days of Chernobyl (them slack Ruskies again) and Fukashima (site, site, site - build on the rock and not on the sand). People, more lives are lost through conventional mining than are lost through nuclear accidents. And what would you prefer to have in your backyard, a small HELE reactor or an ugly, abstentions wind farm or acres of solar farm panels?

I have nothing against people who use coal. If it weren’t for them, wouldn’t even have a war room.

However, you bring up an interesting point and that is population curve. The freedom of women to be independent citizens of a supportive community, so that they can contribute to others in other ways than having children, is good for that purpose. As internet dating and socializing become more popular, there may be ways to make people happy without having children, unless they have particularly unflawed genes and really want to.

The main problem with nuclear power is uranium mine tailings. What you end up with is radioactive particles in downstream waterways and fish areas after the heavier rainfall events, and large areas fenced off around the mine due to risky levels of radioactive particle bearing dust. It is very hard to have a clean uranium mine or have it in a place where the residents in the same watershed will not be up in petition against it.

It is a good idea though. It is still a better alternative than coal. But oil, and even better natural gas, are better alternatives than uranium.

Oil and gas is not ideal for the electric grid because it is needed for mobile industrial equipment and will run out in the next 60 years.

The predominant uses of electricity is in buildings. Somewhere between half and 95% of electricity is used for Heating, cooling, and lighting. Lighting can be reduced by using more natural sun windows and red LED lights at night. Geothermal systems can store heat in deep wells in the summer and use it in the winter, compared with traditional systems that release the heat to the outside air. These are all components of green buildings.

Nearly half of electricity is lost in transmission so I find it hard to believe half to 95% is used for heating. To find a better way to transfer the electricity could make a huge impact. Some natural gas is used to produce electricity and some coal. The burning if coal can be done fairly efficiently with new technologies, however you will always have those trying to do things as cheap and easy as possible. We have natural gas and petroleum to last more than 60 years, the problem is it becomes more expensive and disruptive to get it. People often over look the fact that much of the plastic is also made from petroleum and simply reducing the number of plastic shopping bags is hardly going to make a difference. Hydro power and electricity has been used for hundreds of years, but now they are worried about the fish and other things impacted. Wind farms have disrupted migratory birds, any thing that people come up with have pros and cons. Since Covid people have not been flying as much and this is causing the global warming to increase because the haze for the airplane emissions has been greatly reduced allowing more solar to make it to the earth, in return we have more fires in western US and people running more AC for cooling. So to make dramatic changes very quickly could cause many more problems short term then they benefit in the long term. A much better way to control energy use or pollution is to control the population.

What I meant to say is, 95% of electricity is used for lighting and all temperature control combined, including refrigeration, water heating, air heating and cooling.

Yes, not only is half electricity lost in transmission, about half is also lost in the conversion of energy type, as a general rule. The one exception is the conversion to the thermal heat, which is 100% efficient regardless of if it is made by combustion or electrical resistance, provided the heat doesn’t go out the window. Now the really big power plants can do a little better than half because it is easier to keep all the energy contained in one place, so with the two conversions of thermal to mechanical rotation and mechanical to electrical, the efficiency is About 37%. If you include the loss from transmission in the lines, it is about 19% efficient.

One could put a windmill at every house and connect the driveshaft directly to the compressor of a geothermal heat pump, and by taking electricity out as the middleman, it would be four times more efficient.

Compared to the ecological benefit of entire mountain as habitat Instead of MTR coal mine, what is a few birds? There are light and sound signal systems that signal to the birds “unsafe obstruction.” That will keep most of them out. As for the unfortunate occasions, just use them as an excuse not to be vegetarian for the day.

LOL, "for talk only"

When I was young we had a coal furnance in our house. Weekly coal deliveries and having to stoke the furnace with coal before bed only to have to get up in the morning and stoke it again before breakfast. When it snowed out, the snow had a layer of grey/black ash on it and everything was 'grimey'. Everyone in my neighborhood had coal furnaces.
Then...all the coal furnaces were replaced with natural gas and everything changed.

Most of the coal being used now is being used in electrical generation plants.
The by-products of burning coal are regulated to reduce the environmental impact as much as technology wil allow. Its efficient and relatively lower cost as a fuel source.

Burning coal has the same impact as burning oil. That is because both are fossil fuels.

Here, I have an idea for an alternative energy source.

Lets use the electromagnetic properites of atoms to power our devices.
No cords, no batteries, no electrical power stations.
The atoms which make up the device, powers it.
The energy becomes a 'closed loop' and even heat generation contributes to the power supply.

Now all we gotta do is figure out how to make it happen....