Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Bibliography
- Geography 12- Second Edition H.P. Sovio
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal
- http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_advantages_and_disadvantages_of_using_coal_to_generate_electricity
- http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.energydigital.com/global_mining/coal-705301.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.energydigital.com/global_mining/us-coal-exports-booming-in-europe&usg=__hIWuIfBnTjT8qQo-OnYTNWEdR3Y=&h=604&w=900&sz=196&hl=en&start=6&sig2=Jr5Wl9KvYUe5emDjtyivmw&zoom=1&tbnid=UQhx86f8Opa8kM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=146&ei=waH3UP25Is_oigLQhoC4AQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcoal%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Den%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1
- http://fishandbicylces.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/coal_train.jpg
- http://www.giantbomb.com/coal/93-5748/all-images/52-624346/coal_shovel_1_/51-2294832/
Background Information & More Fun Facts on Coal
Coal is formed from plant life buried in the Earth millions of years ago. It is a carbon- based fossil fuel, the reason it is called a fossil fuel is because it was formed from the remains of vegetation.
Environmental Impacts of Coal
The environmental impacts of coal include land use, such as the land used to mine coal, and water and air pollution caused by the process of coal mining and the use of its products. The burning of coal creates tons of waste products yearly such as fly ash and bottom ash and flue-gas desulfurization sludge. This sludge contains mercury, uranium, arsenic and other heavy metals. Hundreds of respiratory health problems have been recorded, all caused by the pollution being created by the burning of coal. In many parts of the world, especially China, air quality has steadily declined. Coal plants (where the coal is burned) give off carbon dioxide emissions, which is one of the main causes of global warming. The burning of coal is also a leading cause of smog (polluted air with a foggy appearance), acid rain (acidic rainfall which is created by atmospheric pollution) and toxic air pollution.
Coal's Relation to Beautiful British Columbia
The largest segment of the mining industry in British Columbia is coal mining. Coal is present throughout the province from Vancouver Island to the Rocky Mountains. The most valuable and the largest coalfields are the East Kootenay coalfields made up of three separate fields. The Flathead, Crowsnest, and Elk Valley fields. The deposits of coal travel northward from the U.S. border, located between severely folded and faulted sediment layers. In the East Kootenay's there are five mines, they are all open- pit mines. All of the coal from this region is transported by trains to Vancouver where it is loaded onto ships at Robert's bank and Neptune coal ports. From there it taken to markets mainly in South Korea, Japan and China.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Coal as a Energy Source
Advantages:
- It's easily transported to many areas in the world
- Inexpensive to buy on open market due to large reserves and easy access ability
- Coal is the least expensive fossil fuel because it is rather simple to mine
- Coal powered generation scales well, which makes it possible to build a variety of sizes of generation plants
-Since coal is a fossil fuel, it can be used to build power stations almost anywhere as long as there are
large amounts of it
Disadvantages:
- Coal must be mined and and strip mining ruins habitats
- Underground coal mining is dangerous because cave-ins and explosions are common which in turn, costs many miners their lives
- Non-renewable and fast depleting
- Leaves behind harmful remains which harm the environment upon combustion
- Mining of coal creates unstoppable damage to the environment
- Coal will eventually run out
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