Jeremycbrowne, perhaps you should visit Indian especially NewDelhi or Kolkata to see what fossil fuels do to air quality. Its apocalyptic noblue sky’s for days on end in the northern hemisphere winter. An inversionlayer keeps all the pollution close to the ground, the air is incredibly toxic.1.25 million people have their lives cut short very year due to air pollutionin India. Indian doctors are currently warning of an epidemic in lung diseases thein few years that will over whelm hospitals. Then the dead and dying will be inthe millions, not the 1.25 million now. I was in New Delhi in December and thefirst thing my Indian host gave was an air mask, the best quality he could findand he apologized for the poor air quality in advance. We traveledsouth east to Agra (to the Taj) abut 200km away, and all the way there, the airwas polluted. I expected that once we got clear of Delhi the air would clear,but no so. India still has thousands (actually close to 100,000) of familyoperated brick facilities; they all burn coal and inject an unfiltered airstraight into the atmosphere. The air is like sand paper on your lungs, I suggestthat as you like it so much you go and join them. The brick facilities burn about35 million tonnes of coal. It is not a world most Indians want and that is whyso many want to immigrate to Australia. You don’t know how good it felt to bebreathing clean air when we got back home.Yes I enjoy a fossil fuel power car, but I am realist. Whenthere are suitable options of electric vehicles and an affordable price I willswitch. Yes I know I grew up enjoying coal fired power, but I realize it istime to change. Even the major suppliers are saying (AGL and Origin) that it ischeaper to supply power through the use of renewable than build new coal firedplants. Hey, but what would these guys know, it is only their business. I agreewe can’t go cold turkey straight to renewable, but the change is enviable. Beijing,the political heart of China was suffering very poor air quality(still is buthas improved) and the pressure got sogreat that they started shutting inefficient power plants and other inefficientpolluting industries. New Delhi being the political capital of Indian, will beginto feel extreme pressure to do something soon, but being a democracy they don’t the tools for change like a communistcountry like China could deploy. New Delhi in my mind is already unlivable;the people living there are on borrowed time.Enlighten yourself and perhaps look the great Smog of London1952. I won’t even start to debate global warming as it is easy to see yourlocked into position.As sierra said human kind navigated its way from burningwood to coal and now we must transition our way away from coal.
