Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Coal!


Electricity seems so clean. We flip a switch and the light goes on. But where does it come from? If we follow the trail of electricity back to its starting point we find a different picture. The mining of coal is not clean or elegant. Mountaintop removal, one common type of coal mining, essentially blows up the surface of the Earth in order to uncover the organic rock underneath. In beautiful West Virginia, there is a debate about whether they should continue their long tradition of coal mining or stop it in order to keep the state in its pristine condition. People on both sides feel very passionately about this and the feuding between them is becoming hostile. But what should be done? If you side with the people who want to stop the mining then you need to sacrifice your own use of electricity. Are you willing to do that? On the other hand, can our Earth survive if we continue to disrupt ecosystems the way we are.

BlogWork

Watch the video below.

Write a paragraph about what you think we should do about electricity consumption in this country.


16 comments:

el muchos said...

I think this country should ecourage its people to try alternative forms of energy. To be more specific I think we should make solar power more common. Solar power has many pros, although it also has many cons. For one its extremely expensive,but if it becomes more common its price may drop. Also the sun isn't always out, when its cloudy your power could just shut down. although solar power has one mega pro, its renewable, you cant waste the sun!

Thing One! said...

What you think we should do about electricity consumption in this country?

I Think we should start using more solar panels. Even with the solar panels, we should make a commitment to turn off the light, and television when we leave the house. Also I think that we should get this switch that they have in China, i'm not sure what its called, but what it does it when you want to take a hot shower you flip the switch, you wait about 30 minutes and it heats up the water. Then when your done taking your shower you switch it off to save energy. Unlike in the U.S. we don't have the switch, so its constantly taking energy and electricity to heat up the water. Another thing if you don't want to get solar panels, i think we should do is using so much lights, just open your curtains and blinds. If we turn off the light when we don't need them we can save power and energy, and also money $$$

danceMAGICdance said...

A lot of lives are lost because of coal mining. At the Franklin Institute, I saw lungs that a dead person donated to the exhibit. The person worked in a coal mine, and his lungs looked like coal! We should look into other ways to make energy. It could save lives, maybe even money. The people out of work because coal mining is gone could see what they can do with helping the new ways of making electricity.

sir laughs alot the great said...

According to me some of the people who are mining coal don’t think that it is good idea, but they couldn’t find other jobs because of our economy. So if we are to correct our coal problem, we have to provide the workers more jobs. That could be easy, if they transferred them to geothermal energy/other energy renewable recourses, since after that the energy can be better and the workers won’t be affected.

secretroomintheatticyea said...

I think we should function on a combination of alternitive energy. Workers should switch their jobs from coal mining to work at plants that produce renewable energy. I also think that these plants should be located where coal mining used to occur. This would encourage locals to stay. When I was babysitting the kids were watching sonny with a chance and on the show someone had his dressing room powered by gym equitment. I'm not sure if that is possible in real life but couldn't we arrange for gyms to collect and hardness power from the patrons treadmills and other machine.I also heard about this device that powers your TV when you pedel it like a bike. I think we need alternitive energy.

Isys said...

I think it would be great if we could use more solar panals. Unfortunatly we can't because there is not alot of solar. We should instead of using nonrenewable resourses, find more resources. We should find a way to hear something from the president (or sombody) to remind us to turn lights and water and anything else possible off.

ikc said...

I think this country should ecourage its people to try alternative forms of energy. To be more specific I think we should make solar power more commonI Think we should start using more solar panels. Even with the solar panels, we should make a commitment to turn off the light, and television when we leave the house

Thing two :) said...

we could turn of the lights when we don't need them, i think that a lot more companies should be trying to make electrical appliances use less electricity. i also think that they should make this problem more aware to people, i think they make it seem like this problem is one of our back problem like we should be worried it but there are worst things to worry.

Bobby said...

I think that the world should use alternative Energy, and put a limit on how much energy you can use per household. And charge people who go over their limit. Nuclear energy is a good alternative, but is costly, and can have long term affects if there is a meltdown. But i think that it can be a great substitute for coal.

kujo93 said...

I personally dont think consumption is so much the problem as is the source of the electricity. Things like coal mining are ruining the environment. When the environment could provide answers for the alternative. If we want to be greener we need to use the resorces we have to experiment and develope new ways to generate electricity.That is why I think we need newer ways to generate electricity.

Cooke works good..:) said...

I think that the people in the US really need to think about the planet before they do curtain things sometimes. If people were to do things as simple as turning the water off as the brush there teeth (or wash there hair) and flip off lights before they leave the room it will help extremely. another thing that would be VERY helpful (altho be harder to do) is use solar panels and get hybrid cars. not to mention the amount of energy we use in our homes for heat and A/C. people should look at the United state capitol as a example.
Now i also think that people really need to tone down the amount of coal mines we have around the US i mean i dont really think a few is bad but so many in one place is NOT good at all.

L said...

it is a well known fact that turning out the lights will reduce your carbon foot print. but whatever we do the coal will run out eventually. so why not chose to stop using it now instead of being forced to do so later on? why should we stall what will happen anyway? the question remains however of what we will use to power our electricity when we get rid of coal. there's solar or hydro power as well as biomass and others. whatever we do we must stop using coal.

insanity prawn boy said...

I think that we as a nation should slow down with energy consumption, and work to find cleaner, more abundant energy sources for our use. While coal is a very effective energy source, it is not in a large supply, and while coal will resupply itself, it will take a very long time to do so. This not the only problem with coal, environmentally it causes a lot of destruction. I know that we have become too dependent on electricity, and have come to take it for granted, this is why I think we should slow down with energy consumption because we will eventually run out of coal, which is majorly used to create electricity, will eventually be gone and won't come back for millions of years.

Yesterday was my dog's birthday! said...

I think people should start using other forms of energy such as solar power, which, as far as I know, doesn't involve damaging the environment or polluting rivers. Also, people could unplug things when not in use and do all the other things people do to save energy, whatever that may be.

HurricaneSmokey said...

I think that our country should try yo use other types of energy. We need build more solar panels to use the suns energy. We should conserve the energy we are using now one because it is a lot more helpful to the earth and two because the sun has a lot of power and three because the you can not get rid of the sun.

1sweet1 said...

I think that people shouldn't top mine on the mountains it takes away tress and the nature and beauty of the mountain and I don't think it is good for the environment.