Perhaps Time magazine was exactly right about global warming: "Be Worried. Be Very Worried." We already know that glaciers are melting at twice the rate previously predicted. Countless species are going extinct. Droughts, severe storms and flooding will increase. But it's worse. Much worse.
All of this will happen if we do nothing. Unfortunately, the coal industry is about to do something.
Over at Environmental Action, we've pulled together this frightening interactive map of the 130 brand new coal-fired power plants that the industry is pushing to build in the next ten years.
Building these plants would be a disaster. They would increase U.S. production of coal by nearly 25 percent—accelerating global warming even further.
A few years ago, the
Christian Science Monitor wrote a story detailing how China, India and the U.S. would bury any progress made under Kyoto. By 2012, new emissions from these three countries alone would be five times as much as would be avoided under the Kyoto agreement.
That was two years ago when the U.S. was planning 100 plants. Now it's a 130 and growing.
Granted, China is predicted to have the greatest expansion in coal production. But we already produce more global warming emissions than any other country—with less than 5 percent of the population.
How much will be spent by the coal industry (with some federal assistance) in building these plants? Nearly $120 billion—with a 'b'. Wonder how many windmills and solar panels that could buy?