Coal Helps Developing Countries Fight Poverty and Disease (Vijay Jayaraj) India

Link: http://cornwallalliance.org/2018/02/coal-helps-developing-countries-fightpoverty-and-disease-quit-whining-aboutit/?utm_source=Cornwall+Alliance+Newsletter&utm_campaign=f16eacaf83EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b80dc8f2def16eacaf83-153356321 Please see link above for original text, embedded hotlinks and comments.

Coal Helps Developing Countries Fight Poverty And Disease. Quit Whining About It Vijay Jayaraj February 6, 2018

Developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America face the uphill task of reducing mortality due to diseases, many caused by poor hygiene and other localized pollution concerns accompanying poverty.

Poor communities are constantly exposed to diseases caused by poor hygiene and lack of basic facilities like latrines, sewers and sewage treatment plants, and purified water supply. Mosquitoborne diseases such as dengue, water borne diseases like diarrhea, and others are common among people who live in areas with extremely poor hygiene.

Households suffer from poor domestic air quality due to open-hearth wood and coal burning for cooking and heating. Lack of electricity and natural gas can restrict the provision of adequate water and hamper the use of modern household equipment like cooking stoves and electric motors.

Historically, coal-powered energy has played a pivotal role in helping these nations improve their healthcare facilities to support and sustain their expanding populations.

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A recently released critique of a report in The Lancet reaffirms the indispensable role of coalpowered electricity in improving healthcare in poor communities.

Coal is the cheapest and most abundant energy source in the world’s two largest developing countries, India and China, with combined population near 2.7 billion. In both these countries, coal-powered electricity has helped achieve reliable and affordable uninterrupted power supplies.

Many people in wealthy countries consider coal a dirty fuel. On the contrary, used to generate electricity it is much cleaner than wood and other biomass, and the economic and civic benefits of electricity generated from it have helped improve domestic air and water quality, preventing millions of deaths.

However, coal-powered conventional electricity faces a severe threat from environmentalists who falsely portray it as causing both traditional air pollution (fine particulate matter and toxic gases) and dangerous global warming.

Yet in cities like Delhi, India, domestic coal burning, farming practices, and vehicular emissions are the main sources of air pollution.

Anti-coal establishments routinely understate the contribution of coal-powered electricity to the economic progress of most developed countries, which have benefitted from a traditionally coalpowered economy.

Grave misconceptions concerning the ill effects of electricity generated from coal plants can stall economic progress in developing countries. Such countries can address their pollution and healthcare problems more effectively if they are allowed to harness conventional energy sources like coal and natural gas.

The Philippines, China and India have already expressed their displeasure towards restrictive energy policies disguised as climate-change policies. Other developing countries should join them if they desire the rapid economic progress that makes both better healthcare and poverty alleviation possible.

This article was originally published on The Daily Caller.

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Addendum: Organizations and individuals in North America, Europe and Australia have been the main instigators in working to mislead the public and deny use of fossil fuels, nuclear or both to people around the world. Here is one example. Our Children's Trust elevates the voice of youth to secure the legal right to a stable climate and healthy atmosphere for the benefit of all present and future generations. The legal staff are mostly young, white lawyers, who want to focus on stopping use of fossil fuels for people around the world with the amazing claim of their clients having the legal right to a stable climate. The fact that humans can cause the climate to be stable and that a few youth in the United States has a legal right to this condition at the expense of plentiful energy from fossil fuel for the rest of the world is a pipe dream similar to the 13th Century story of the Pied Piper of Hameln. Extreme extremists must have their day in court and the rest of humanity shall stand by for the U.S. court decision.

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Our Children’s Trust is asking the U.S. courts to grant these extreme climate change ideologues the right to manage “their� safe climate. The idea that a U.S. court would give a few American youth and their lawyers the right to deny fossil fuels to people around the world so they can claim they are managing a safe climate is scientifically and humanitarianly preposterous, impossible. But extreme environmentalists in the USA have managed to get other unsound court decisions in the last half century. This is a world class disgrace.

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