For teachers, excellent materials that are both informative and interesting are available at the Common Sense Education site. For more advanced study, two great options are the Weather Channel and the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration. Both allow the reader to browse materials to find those that best address personal knowledge deficiencies. NOAA is particularly impressive in that the information, while very technical in many ways, is quite understandable. NOAA continues to publish climate data despite the current administration’s attempts to eliminate all government climate science websites.

​Some issues relating to climate change are self-evident. Others require deeper knowledge to make them understandable. While the impact of fossil fuels is apparent to many on an environmental level, fossil fuels also are the subject of scientific studies.  Exxon, a main producer of fossil fuels, recognized long ago that these fuels have significant impacts on climate change in the scientific and statistical sense.

The burning of fossil fuels releases CO2 into the atmosphere. We know inherently that this is dangerous.  Seeing smoke billowing out of massive electrical generation facilities blots out the sky.  We can literally see the particles being diffused into the atmosphere.

Carbon monoxide, while invisible, is one of the outputs of internal combustion engines.  The danger of this gas is so high that we have alarms to detect it in homes.  We are warned not to use gas powered generators indoors, and we are careful to make sure we don’t run the car in the garage as this can be fatal. If emissions from one car can have such a dire impact, it is quite reasonable and accurate to assume that automobiles idling in massive traffic jams are even more dangerous.

Fuels also can damage the environment and contribute to climate change in more subtle ways. There actually are “clean” and “dirty” coals. The distinction refers to the efficiency of the coal to burn.  Clean coal contains little shale, slate or other non-burnable minerals.  When it burns, clean coal leaves very little ash in the environment and its burning consistency enables precise coal flow into boiler systems. 
               
Also, byproducts of coal production and usage also are very harmful to the environment and ultimately serve as accelerants to climate change. In anthracite coal areas such as the coal regions of Pennsylvania, abandoned mines are an obvious source of danger. Gas can build up in them and, of course, without maintenance the mine shafts will collapse. During the 1930s, the federal government spent millions of dollars as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to close abandoned mines. In Centralia, Pennsylvania, an underground fire in abandoned mine shafts forced the permanent evacuation of the town.  Although it started many years ago, the fire continues to burn today.

​ Other byproducts include slag, the non-burning materials separated from the coal in the coal breaker. Slag dumped in the region reach mountainous proportions. Despite being an eyesore, the slag piles leech into waterways when it rains, destroying the water quality in rivers, streams, and lakes. At one point, coal dust choked the Schuylkill River at Reading until the Army Corps of Engineers dredged the river. However, a side effect of dredging is the release of heavy metals.  The dangers of coal can be much more far-reaching than the obvious ones.              

Dealing with coal and other fossil fuel power generation takes determination.  The initial goal is to reduce the carbon output and eventually reach a carbon neutral state. Carbon neutrality results when the carbon released into the atmosphere is offset by carbon removed from it. A combination of alternative energy sources including windmills [no, they don’t cause cancer, contrary to President Trump’s assertion], solar, and tidal.
 
Additionally, trees very effectively convert CO2 into oxygen. Some commercial companies have invented filtering equipment that is tremendously effective at removing CO2. Hybrid and electrical automobiles contribute to cleaner air as well. It is very clear that we know how to clean the air, but it is equally clear that the United States has not made the commitment to do so.

Young people following leaders like Greta Thunberg are generating traction for change. Indeed, one the Democratic candidates’ debates focused on climate change government actions to combat it.  Individual also are installing solar panels on their properties to help reduce the kilowatt hours they must purchase from electrical generating companies. Other advantages to this trend will be considered in a future post.

I hope that knowledge - self-evident and learned - coupled with activism will lead to a reduction in the human actions contributing to climate change.  If not, we face the existential threat of ending life on this planet.  But we are people of hope.   

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