After Gutenberg

NY Times business reporters recently opened a story, “As the Senate prepares to tackle global warming,” which implies that the Senate will evidence something other than more denial and delay. The business reporters went on to say that their “policy decisions [are] worth hundreds of billions of dollars in coming decades.”*

*Note: Among us literary types, this is what is called foreshadowing, or as the saying goes, “3 guesses as to how this turns out and the first 2 don’t count.”

The biggest single source of carbon emissions in the city of Washington, D.C. is owned by Congress.

Oh, there could be some sound and fury. Yet when it is all over, what will have been accomplished? Even other NYT reporters are unable to become enthused about anything substantive coming from the U.S. Senate.

With the clock running out and deep differences unresolved, it now appears that there is little chance that international climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December will produce a comprehensive and binding new treaty on global warming.

What would be substantive? This blog recently made reference to the Hansen Test. It is a simple test as to whether the energy policy is of import. Does the action (or inaction) allow coal to continue to be used and emit massive amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere, pushing us further past an already disastrous excess of GHG emissions?

Dr. James Hansen, NASA’s leading climate scientist, repeatedly has advised that federal policy stop emissions from coal burning electric power plants. Hansen has said that it is the single, most important thing that the United States must do to avoid destruction of life on the planet as we know it.

David Roberts has characterized the coal industry as a corrupt, vicious, law breaking, public teat sucking, mountain blowing up, working poor killing, planet destroying dinosaur of an industry. Discuss.

Hansen advocates a carbon tax on the raw fuel as it is mined or drilled. Of course, those in Washington, D.C. would much rather eat their own young than establish such policy. Even the less onerous prospect of a federal RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) repeatedly has failed.

In part, policy to enact a federal RPS standards such as many states already have enacted, has failed due to an outcry from those states unprepared for, or perhaps even incapable of, developing renewable energy sources.

It is worth noting that such policy also has failed due to the influence from those states supplying the coal. NYC Treehugger Matthew McDermott identifies those states in a post entitled “Know Your Energy”, which is a play upon the admonition, “Know Your Enemy.” The 5 states that supply 73% of coal are:

1. Wyoming = 467.6 Million Tons
2. West Virginia = 157.8 Million Tons
3. Kentucky = 120.3 Million Tons
4. Pennsylvania = 65.4 Million Tons
5. Montana = 44.8 Million Tons

McDermott further elucidates that 93% of US coal demand came from electrical production. In 2008, coal-fired electric power consumed 1.04 billion tons of coal.

It bears repeating that if a foreign power did what coal companies have done to citizens and the land, we would declare war.

The East North Central states tread the dirtiest path, consuming 239.2 million tons; the South Atlantic states are next dirtiest, with 180.4 million tons of coal consumption; third dirtiest is Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, with 156.1 million tons of coal consumed in 2008.

Truth be told, this blog could look the other way when the stories were about devastation where the coal is minded or burned. Yes, by gosh, something should be done, and yet there were competing priorities.

Now that there is convincing evidence that such BAUAAAE (Business As Usual And Above All Else) will result in devastation of life on the planet, this blog and a vast number of other media have been paying more attention to the dangerous consequences of coal mining. For instance, the Treehugger article lists several related posts that are unfavorable about coal.

• New Clean Coal Hazards Revealed: Could Poison Plants, People
• Ten Dirty Things About Big King Coal
• US Coal Plants Dump Thousands of Gallons of Waste Into Drinking Water Supplies a Day

So what has all of this got to do with better identification of coal zombies? Well, your average Hollywood zombie is pretty easy to identify: they have really horrifying make-up; they lurch; they make rudimentary noises; they eat brains.

OTOH, coal zombies are anything but low budget. The ACCCE (American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity) spent $10.5 million lobbying Capitol Hill on climate in 2008. So coal zombies are going to be well-shod and have money to spend on things like caroling coal nugget commercials.

Still, like the original Hollywood zombies, coal zombies do have a master. In this case, the bokor is Emperor Fossil. Thus, one way to identify a corn zombie is if he or she interrupts a conversation with you by saying, “Excuse me, but I have to take this call from my bokor.”

(Hey! You are supposed to rattle those chains when you groan.)

*** CAUTION ***

*** CAUTION ***

*** SCARY COAL ZOMBIE CLOWN ***

Like your regular run-of-the-mill zombie, corn zombies have a disregard for life. They lack any compunction about destruction of life. And, like your regular run-of-the-mill scoundrel, they lack any compunction about claiming to be a patriot.

Coal zombies are energy fascists, what Monica Graaff and other deep ecologists describe as operating from “a fundamental male-principle ethic of dominance and conquest played out in various hierarchical, militaristic, capitalist and industrialist forms. It disallows the feminine-principle values of caring and respect so necessary to the nurturing of life and the creation of balance in society.”

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