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Coal Plants

Carbon Dioxide and Global Climate Change

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One of the primary pollutants from coal-fired power plants is carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change. A typical 500 MW coal plant emits 3.7 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year, and coal plants that we decide to build today will operate for another 60 years, emitting enormous amounts of carbon. We need to seriously consider the impacts of new coal plants on our planet before electing to build more.

Carbon dioxide functions as a greenhouse gas by trapping heat near the Earth. When the Sun warms the Earth’s surface, some of the radiation is not absorbed and is reflected back into space as heat. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide absorb this heat and trap it in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide’s effects on the Earth can be dramatic. In the past, the government did not regulate carbon dioxide as an air pollutant because it did not cause obvious detrimental effects to the environment and humans, but now we know better. Due to the evidence that shows that carbon dioxide does cause damage to humans and the planet through its contributions to global climate change, the Supreme Court recently ruled in Massachusetts vs. EPA that carbon dioxide must be regulated as an air pollutant through the Clean Air Act.

There is a plethora of information available to the public about carbon dioxide and global climate change. One of the best sources for information is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC, established in 1988, analyzes peer reviewed and published papers from scientists around the world and published reports on the human impact on global climate change. To date, they have released four major reports. According to these reports, there is clear and documented evidence that the planet is warming dramatically and this warming is “very likely” caused by humans through burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Approximately 75% of the effects of global climate change are attributed to the burning of fossil fuels.

The following graph shows carbon dioxide and temperature for the last 400,000 years. You can see that carbon dioxide levels are higher than ever seen before, and that temperature has consistently tracked with carbon dioxide levels.

CO2 vs temps

The IPCC Report provides us with information about not only the effects of global climate change we are seeing now, but also the future impacts we can expect to see.

Here are some of the effects we are seeing today:

  • 11 of the past 12 years have been the warmest years on record
  • Increase in size and number of glacial lakes
  • Instability and melting of permafrost
  • Earlier occurrence of spring events like leaf-unfolding, bird migration and egg-laying
  • An increase in hurricane strength since the 1970s, associated with warmer surface temperatures
  • A drop in ocean pH of 0.1, due to the acidification effects of carbon dioxide in water

Here are some of the effects we can expect to see in the near future:

  • Global temperatures will increase between 1.8 and 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century
  • By 2080, these higher temperature will leave millions starving and cause critical water shortages in China, Australia, parts of Europe and parts of the United States
  • 200-600 million people will face food shortage and seven million homes will be affected by coastal flooding in the next 70 years
  • Sea levels will rise between seven and 24 inches by the end of the century
  • Weather extremes like heat waves, heavy rainfall and hurricanes will become more frequent
  • Arctic sea ice may disappear during late summers by the later part of the century

Global climate change will affect us directly in the West as well. As temperatures rise, skiing will fade away from the Southern Rockies. The Pika, a feisty alpine meadow creature that looks like a cross between a mouse and a rabbit, has already been affected. Alpine meadows will disappear altogether, and aspen trees will shift into Canada. Cold-water fish, such as trout, will die off in the Southern Rockies. We will see much more rain in the winter, but very little snow pack; our water supplies will suffer. For more information about how global climate change will affect your life, click here.

Climate change is a problem that has to be addressed today if we're to reverse the impacts for tomorrow. There is no undoing the damage already done, but what we can do is stop contributing to the problem.

For more information about global climate change, see these resources:

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