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Why has the world started to mine coal again? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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With climate change looming, it seems so completely backwards to go back to using it again.

Is it coal miners pushing to keep their jobs? Fear of nuclear power? Is purely politically motivated, or are there genuinely people who believe coal is clean?

Edit, I will admit I was ignorant to the usage of coal nowadays.

Now I'm more depressed than when I posted this

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[โ€“] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

my energy bill right now is like a new solar panel a month. what resources do we not have, and are you familiar with pumped storage? spoilers, we already have renewable stable energy supply

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  • [โ€“] 6 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    The truth is, we do have enough resources. We just care more about the economy and profit than our future climate (which will also strongly affect the economy, but that's in the future so...).

    If we actually valued the climate as much as we ought to, switching fully to renewables would be a bargain.

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  • [โ€“] -2 points 2 years ago*

    We dont' really care about the economy, otherwise we wouldn't be doing this boom-bust shit and we'd have a better planned economy that would ensure there wasn't a perpetual under-class of starving people in every industrialized nation.

    Our Government DO care about making sure their donors get paid though.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Everything has a cost of course, building solar panel requires a significant amount of precious metals, which may or may not be easily accessible or affordable depending on the political climate between countries who mine vs the countries who needs the resources.

    And the production of solar panel does create some toxic leftovers which needs to make handled appropriately. Not saying they're a bad alternative and they're definitely before than fossil fuel or coal, just needs to consider the cost and the impact of everything.

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  • [โ€“] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    building solar panel requires a significant amount of precious metals

    Mmm, no, no they dont. Solar panels are primarily made from silicon. Sand.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 2 years ago* (1 child)

    They also need

    • Copper
    • Cobalt
    • Nickel
    • Lithium
    • Chromium
    • Zinc
    • Aluminium

    and some others rare-earth elements, as well as some platinum-group metals. The current photocell chemistry we use is quite complex.

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  • [โ€“] -1 points 2 years ago (1 child)
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  • [โ€“] 1 point 2 years ago* (1 child)

    https://www.iea.org/reports/the-role-of-critical-minerals-in-clean-energy-transitions/mineral-requirements-for-clean-energy-transitions

    and even then, solar panels are only one part of the whole system, since the source of energy fluctuates significantly.

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