Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1) Pollution
Premature deaths (~ ten years loss of life) caused by air pollution each year
(WHO 2007):
Globally - 2 million, China 650,000, India - 530,000, USA - 41,000
Chernobyl killed 57 people directly and (according to United Nations Scientific
Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation) < 4,0000 people from long-
term effects, but
2004 official statistics: 6,027 deaths from coal mining accidents in China (real
number believed to be much more), 28 deaths in the USA
One modern 1 GW coal power station with European population density kills
300 people/year 4,000 people in ~ 13 years
[Annual deaths from: indoor cooking ~ 1.5 M (0.3 M coal + 1.3 M biomass) malaria ~
1.2 M; TB ~ 1.6 M]
2) Climate Change
Since there are so few alternatives, expect most of world's remaining fossil
fuels will be burned on time scale less than several hundred years CO2 days
in atmosphere
Must try to capture and bury as much CO2 as possible
Carbon Capture and Storage
In principle could capture CO2 from power stations (35%
of total) and from some industrial plants (not from cars,
domestic)
Capture and storage - would add ~ $2c/kWh to cost for gas;
more for coal - in both cases much more initially
Storage - could (when location appropriate) be in depleted
gas fields, depleted oil fields, deep saline aquifers
Issues are safety and cost (capture typically reduces efficiency
by 10 percentage points, e.g. 46% 37%, 41% 32%,..), and
how to count for Carbon credits