Dr. James Hansen, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, recently slammed the Australian coal industry and the Australian government in an open letter to President-elect Barack Obama in relation to carbon dioxide emissions.
Dr Hansen, who is also a Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and one of the world’s leading climatologists stated in his letter:
"Australia exports coal and sets atmospheric carbon dioxide goals so large as to guarantee destruction of much of the life on the planet"
Greens MP and mining spokesperson Lee Rhiannon said yesterday that the warning should be a wake up call to Australian political leaders. Ms Rhiannon believes the only way for Australia to demonstrate a serious commitment to addressing climate change is to develop a plan for the transition from coal and invest more heavily in renewable energy.
According to Ms. Rhiannon, Australia’s 230 million tonnes annual coal exports contribute 550 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to the world’s greenhouse gas
burden each year.
In a somewhat ironic twist; temperature increases caused by global warming are also seeming to provide some benefit to the Australian coal industry.
The Daily Times in Lahore, Pakistan , reports that hydroelectric power generation has plummeted 6,500 megawatts to 150 megawatts: close to a 98% reduction. Leading environmental blog, TreeHugger has revealed that Australia is offering to come to the rescue – with coal. In a letter to Sindh Minister for Mines and Mineral Resources, Irfanullah Khan Marwat, Australian coal has seized on the Pakistan climate crisis and expressed interest in setting up two 1000 MW coal fired power plants in Thar.
Far from curtailing coal operations in light of the evidence that coal combustion contributes substantially to global warming, Australia is steaming ahead. Twelve new NSW coal mine projects resulting in an additional 32 million tonnes of coal production were approved last year and exports from Australia’s Newcastle coal port, the world’s largest, could double under a state government expansion plan.
Even so called "new generation coal", touted to be a cleaner option, remains highly controversial as it requires 20% more energy in associated processes; therefore creating additional serious environmental problems in connection with coal mining such as destruction of habitat and poisoning of waterways.
