A truly massive amount of electrical power is essential to maintain a human environment. For example, try drinking water from an unfiltered stream. You run the risk of getting giardiasis, which is a terrible way to spend a couple of weeks writhing in pain. Cooking food on an electric stove is way, way healthier than cooking it in your fireplace. And what about hospitals? They require a huge amount of electrical energy. If you force them onto a power source that isn't available 24/7, all year round, no matter the weather, lots more people will die.
Coal brings light and life to billions of people. It literally cleans their environment: coal power purifies drinking water, washes their clothes, keeps their homes from getting too cold/hot/damp/dry, pumps the water they take showers with, fuels the industrial processes that produce the antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals that keep them healthy, and so on.
Take away those coal power plants, and millions will die. Likewise, anything you do to make energy more expensive will cause people to suffer. Energy bills that leave me poorer do not help me out.
Whenever you see someone talking exclusively about the negative aspects of a technology, step back and consider the entire context, including the alternative that people face. And remember that the people you're considering have the same right to exist that you do.
Coal brings light and life to billions of people. It literally cleans their environment: coal power purifies drinking water, washes their clothes, keeps their homes from getting too cold/hot/damp/dry, pumps the water they take showers with, fuels the industrial processes that produce the antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals that keep them healthy, and so on.
Take away those coal power plants, and millions will die. Likewise, anything you do to make energy more expensive will cause people to suffer. Energy bills that leave me poorer do not help me out.
Whenever you see someone talking exclusively about the negative aspects of a technology, step back and consider the entire context, including the alternative that people face. And remember that the people you're considering have the same right to exist that you do.