[prakruti] CHINA, INDIA, COAL,& MERCURY AROUND THE WORLD

[Guest guest]

At 08:21 PM 11/5/07, you wrote:

Dear Colleagues,

 

Though coal is the diretiest source for generating electricity, China and

India are rushing to set up power plants and mega power plants based on

coal. China is setting up coal power plants at the aqverage rate of

a plant every five days. Accidents and trappings in coal mines have kill

thousants of workers in China during the year.

 

India is setting up mega and super mega coal based power plants

throughout the country with a view to bridge the gap of estimated 77,000

MW power shortage in next five years though earlier power generation

targets are not completed. Indian coal quality is inferior so many coal

power plants have changed over to imported coal supplies resulting in

further environmental and balance of payment problems.

 

It would be worthwhile to study the article reprinted below in this

global perspective. While the US is complaining about likely

pollution, Bush adminstration has extended special incentives and

concessions for setting up coal based power plants in the USA

itself.

Best wishes.

Kisan

Mehta

Priya Salvi

Save Bombay Committee and Prakruti

102, Mausam, Plot 285, Sector 28, Vashi,

Navi Mumbai 400705, India.

www.savebombaycommittee.org

Kisan Mehta: 0091 9223448857

Priya Salvi: 0091 9324027494

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World's Coal Dependency Hits Environment

The Associated Press

Sunday 04 November 2007

Taiyuan, China - It takes five to 10 days for the

pollution from China's coal-fired plants to make its way to the United

States, like a slow-moving storm.

It shows up as mercury in the bass and trout caught in

Oregon's Willamette River. It increases cloud cover and raises ozone

levels. And along the way, it contributes to acid rain in Japan and South

Korea and health problems everywhere from Taiyuan to the United States.

 

This is the dark side of the world's growing use of

coal.

Cheap and abundant, coal has become the fuel of choice

in much of the world, powering economic booms in China and India that

have lifted millions of people out of poverty. Worldwide demand is

projected to rise by about 60 percent through 2030 to 6.9 billion tons a

year, most of it going to electrical power plants.

But the growth of coal-burning is also contributing to

global warming, and is linked to environmental and health issues

including acid rain and asthma. Air pollution kills more than 2 million

people prematurely, according to the World Health Organization.

" Hands down, coal is by far the dirtiest

pollutant, " said Dan Jaffe, an atmospheric scientist at the

University of Washington who has detected pollutants from Asia at

monitoring sites on Mount Bachelor in Oregon and Cheeka Peak in

Washington state. " It is a pretty bad fuel on all scores. "

 

To understand the conflict over coal, look at Taiyuan

and the surrounding Shanxi Province, the country's top coal-producing

region - and one of its most polluted.

Almost overnight, coal has turned poor farmers in this

city of 3 million people into Mercedes-driving millionaires, known

derisively as " baofahu " or the quick rich. Flashy hotels

display chunks of coal in the lobby, and sprawling malls advertise

designer goods from Versace and Karl Lagerfeld. Real estate prices have

doubled, residents say, and construction cranes fill the skyline.

 

A museum in Taiyuan celebrates all things coal. Amid

photos of smiling miners, coal is presented as the foundation of the

country's economic development, credited with making possible everything

from the railroad to skin care products.

" Today, coal has penetrated into every aspect of

people's lives, " the museum says in one of many cheery

pronouncements. " We can't live comfortably without coal. "

 

Yet the cornstalks lining a highway outside the city

254 miles southwest of Beijing are covered in soot. The same soot settles

on vegetables sold at the roadside, and the thick, acrid smoke blots out

the morning sun. At its worst, the haze forces highway closures and

flight delays.

With pressure to clean up major cities such as

Shanghai and Beijing, particularly in the run-up to next year's Beijing

Olympics, the central government is turning increasingly to provinces

such as Shanxi to meet the country's power demands.

" They look at polluted places like Taiyuan and

say it's so polluted there so it doesn't matter if they have another five

power plants, " said Ramanan Laxminarayan, a senior fellow at

Resources For the Future, an American think tank that found links between

air pollution and rising hospital admissions in Taiyuan.

" I visited these power plants and there is no

concept of pollution control, " he said. " They sort of had a

laugh and asked, 'Why would you expect us to install pollution control

equipment? " '

China is home to 20 of the world's 30 most polluted

cities, according to a World Bank report.

Health costs related to air pollution total $68

billion a year, nearly 4 percent of the country's economic output, the

report said. And acid rain has contaminated a third of the country, Sheng

Huaren, a senior Chinese parliamentary official, said last year. It is

said to destroy some $4 billion worth of crops every year.

" What we are facing in China is enormous economic

growth, and ... China is paying a price for it, " said Henk Bekedam,

the country representative for the World Health Organization. " Their

growth is not sustainable from an environmental perspective. The good

news is that they realize it. The bad news is they're dependent on coal

as an energy source. "

But the costs go far beyond China. The soot from power

plants boosts global warming because coal emits almost twice as much

carbon dioxide as natural gas. And researchers from Texas A & M

University found that air pollution from China and India has increased in

cloud cover and major Pacific Ocean storms by 20 percent to 50 percent

over the past 20 years.

" We know dust from factories in China, India,

Mexico and Africa does not simply disappear; the wind brings it

here, " said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Bill Kovacs.

Kovacs said overseas dust is adding to the number of

counties that do not qualify for federal transportation funds because

they are out of compliance with ozone standards. More than 100 counties

do not meet the limit of 84 parts per billion. China alone contributes 3

to 5 parts per billion, estimates Daniel J. Jacob, professor of

atmospheric chemistry and environmental engineering at Harvard

University.

Mercury, a byproduct of some coal-mining, is another

major concern. The potent toxin falls into waterways and shows up in

fish. Asia's contribution to U.S. mercury levels has shot up over the

past 20 years. Jacob estimated half of the mercury in the United States

comes from overseas, especially China.

" It's a global problem and right now China is a

source on the rise, " he said. " If we want to bring down mercury

levels in fish, then we have to go after emissions in East Asia. "

 

A fifth of the mercury in the Willamette River came

from China and other foreign sources, said Bruce K. Hope of the Oregon

Department of Environmental Quality. Pregnant or nursing women who eat

the fish put their babies at risk of neurological damage.

" It's frustrating to realize that part of your

problem is someone else's behavior and you can't really go to them and

say, 'Can you do something different? " ' Hope said.

China has closed some polluting factories and says it

will retire 50 gigawatts of inefficient power plants, or 8 percent of the

total power grid, by 2010, according to the Pew Center for Global Climate

Change. The government has also mandated that solar, wind, hydroelectric

and other forms of renewable energy provide 10 percent of the nation's

power by 2010, and ordered key industries to reduce energy consumption by

20 percent.

President Hu Jintao, in a speech to a key party

congress last month, promised a cleanup. But China has fallen short of

its national targets for using energy more efficiently, and coal remains

a major energy source.

" Everyone knows coal is dirty, but there is no

way that China can get rid of coal, " the World Bank's Zhao Jianping

said in Beijing. " It must rely on it for years to come, until humans

can find a new magic solution. "

Robert N. Schock, the director of studies for the

World Energy Council, agreed that coal, cheap and abundant, will remain a

crucial source of energy for many years and be crucial to improving

living standards in developing countries.

" Twenty-five percent of the world's electric

power is now generated by coal, and those plants are not likely to

disappear overnight, " Schock said.

In Shanxi province, authorities have pledged to close

900 coal mines and dozens of makeshift factories that process coal for

the steel industry, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The

Asian Development Bank is providing more than $200 million in loans to

improve air quality in the province, through programs to shift to

cleaner-burning natural gas for household heating and a demonstration

project to capture methane, a greenhouse gas released in coal mining.

 

Taiyuan, dubbed the world's most polluted city in the

1990s, is no longer thought to be the worst, thanks to various efforts

including phasing out coal-burning boilers. But the level of pollutants

in the air remains five to 10 times higher than levels in New York or

London. Residents say they see blue skies fewer than 120 days a year.

 

Australians Paul and Helen Douglas, who work for

Evergreen in Taiyuan, an American social service agency, said their

21-month-old daughter Rose has been found in tests to have elevated lead

levels. She has developed a chronic cough, Paul Douglas said, and the

family will likely return to Australia before their contract ends if

their daughter's toxin levels rise further.

" People say we are irresponsible and that we are

making decisions that are injuring our children, " he said of coming

under fire from relatives and church members for staying in Taiyuan.

 

Taiyuan residents, though, shrug wearily when the talk

turns to pollution, fearful that speaking out could get them in trouble.

But when pressed, the complaints tumble forth and expose a community held

hostage by the soot.

Residents seal their windows to keep out the dirty

air. Parents are warned not to let their toddlers play outside, for fear

of being covered in coal dust. Fruits and vegetables must be washed in

detergent.

" I'm worried about my children, " said a

woman who lives in the shadow of a power plant and fertilizer factory.

She would only give her surname, Zhang. " We worry about everything.

If you get sick seriously, you will die. "

Many complain of chronic sore throats, bronchitis,

lung cancer and pulmonary fibrosis. One study, by researchers at Norway's

Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, found

Taiyuan's pollution increased death rates by 15 percent and chronic

respiratory ailments by 40 to 50 percent.

" I feel terrible and I'm coughing all the

time, " said William Li, a retired engineer from Taiyuan. His father

died of lung cancer and his son has tracheitis, an upper respiratory

condition. " The coal, it produces electric power that we send to

other provinces. But we are left with the pollution. "

 

On the Web:

 

China's State Environmental Protection Administration:

http://english.sepa.gov.cn

 

The US Environmental Protection Agency: www.epa.gov

The World Bank in China: www.worldbank.org/cn

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars China Environmental Forum:

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseactiontopics.home & topic--id1421

 

 

 

 

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