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General discussion

New York on track to shut down coal plants by end of 2020.

May 10, 2019 1:36PM PDT

That's not that long from now. https://electrek.co/2019/05/10/ny-coal-free-2020/

In spite of such declines the US Gov attempts to show increases in coal.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=38292 for example is titled "U.S. production and use of refined coal continues to increase".

Exports did go up as noted at https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=38774 but US consumption is falling.

Mongolia has the dirtiest air in a city where people burn raw coal.
https://www.bbc.com/reel/playlist/in-depth?vpid=p074bqzq
This is nothing new as they have this distinction from over a decade ago. Respiratory and lung issues are common there.

Discussion is locked

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Small milestone but...
May 10, 2019 1:45PM PDT
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And a Stone Henge rock returned too.
May 10, 2019 1:50PM PDT

What a week!

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True!
May 10, 2019 2:01PM PDT

All's good here. Grin When I think about our heritage with coal and me being from the valleys, most people I know were miners.
Dafydd.

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Watching a broadcast of a Euro rugby tournament.
May 11, 2019 10:19AM PDT

One commentator on the pregame show was an ex-player.
The guy had no neck!!!
Spoke good English, though.

Len and Sar (whoever they are) are 10-10 at the half.

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Now, that is amazing!
May 10, 2019 9:22PM PDT

Roddy Macdowell would be so happy. Happy

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Clinging to Coal special on CBS.
May 10, 2019 2:40PM PDT
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Change is almost always expensive to some.
May 11, 2019 4:56AM PDT

Can't give a blanket condenmation to those who oppose it.

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Change
May 11, 2019 6:47AM PDT

Is going to happen.

I've seen some big changes just in my life time.

I come from a small town that was built around paper mills.
Generations of people worked at the mills.
When the mills closed there was great upheaval.

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New England went through the same
May 11, 2019 11:10AM PDT

when textile manufacturing moved overseas.
And, what's the Midwest called? Oh, yeah. The Rust Belt.

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Regions/countries
May 11, 2019 11:49AM PDT

Will need to adapt as industry moves around the world.

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Coal is an energy source from the past
May 10, 2019 10:08PM PDT

Cities/states/countries will slowly move away from it.

Some folks will fight the change but I doubt they will win.

Not that I can see the future but I suspect the same will happen to ICE.

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Source from the past?
May 11, 2019 2:38AM PDT

The way many scientists and others speak of the earth's many cycles, coal could also be the energy of the future. Or, perhaps the next (semi)-intelligent life forms could be on Venus and discover coal there. After all, isn't its atmosphere mostly CO2 as may have been our earth's?

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(NT) Looked at the estimated surface temp there?
May 11, 2019 5:04AM PDT
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I'll answer your question with another question or two.
May 11, 2019 5:59AM PDT

As the sun burns itself out, will the surface temperature be reduced? Aren't there those who think Mars might have once held life forms? We can't know but maybe we earthlings find that conjecture and arguments are a good way to pass the time. Of course that time is shorter than a snap of the finger when compared to that of eternity.

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Re: sun
May 11, 2019 8:34AM PDT

The future of the sun, as told in https://thesciencegeek.org/2015/04/12/the-future-of-the-sun/ is that it will become a 'red giant' in 5 billion years (that's somewhat more than the current age of the earth) and possibly swallow Venus and the Earth then, assuming they still circle around the Sun at the same distance as now.

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Long before that End,
May 11, 2019 10:32AM PDT

the decreasing distance to the Sun's surface will make earth uninhabitable. (Red is cooler than the current yellow, but still deadly at the new distance.)

Remember, the amount of solar (coming in a straight line) that makes life what it is, is a tiny fraction of what the sun produces.

And bumblebees can't fly.

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Energy of the future
May 11, 2019 6:08AM PDT

If it is it won't be for a society that looks anything like what we have today.

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I daw the Mongolia video just the other day.
May 11, 2019 5:00AM PDT

Very sad. Why do our adult bad decisions always take it out on the children?
Sad

One takeaway I had was that it's unsolvable by the Mongolian government. Not even by 'throwing money at the problem'.

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The Navajo Res here has a nice little pocket
May 11, 2019 5:03AM PDT

of coal. They dig it and transport it to utilities via unit trains, like a little W. Va.
Not sure what the cleanness is.