RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: There are other jobs
"You can't expect everyone to stop driving their gas powered cars, or fly in planes that use fuel, smoking cigarettes, sure but the rest is just not going to happen overnight"
Hello? Where did I say overnight?
Ending fossil fuel use is no different from any other addiction. Just like a smoking addict, we have to first start by not increasing.
Building another coal mine while we're trying to lower carbon emissions and stop global warming is like saying to everyone "I'm going to quit smoking!" and then going from 1 pack to 2 packs a day.
We have to start somewhere.
That said, there is a compromise available, at least in my mind.
Coal is by far the largest CO2 source from humanity, 80% is from thermal generation, 20% is from steel making (met coal). So lets say that 100% of the worlds CO2 emissions from coal equals 10 cigarettes a day.
If there was an ironclad guarantee like, say, a government moratorium on all new mines selling thermal coal we'd be helping our addict go from 10 cigarettes a day down towards 2. That's a pretty good start and Raven Coal would still be able to operate.
To complete the cigarette analogy... we are on, quite literally, a living, breathing planet. Our planet is the patient in the doctors office that has been smoking for 40 years and has finally come to the doctor to have his breathing problems checked. His doctor has told him that if he does not quit he's likely to get worse, or die young, or both. The patient can choose to either ignore the doctor or make excuses like "I can't just stop" and keep on doing what he's doing... or he can choose to start to change his lifestyle before it's too late.