It is claimed that coal power projects in Pakistan would be based on clean coal that would have little environmental adverse effects. This simple statement is falsified in the National Geographic magazine dated April 2014 in a detailed article that says that coal is the dirtiest, most lethal energy resource we have as the carbon problem is too big. Chinese cities are polluted with smog produced by the coal ash particles that are suspended in the air.
President Obama announced that by June 2014 the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) would draft new rules that would “put an end to limitless dumping of carbon pollution from our power plants.” The rules would be issued under the Clean Air Act, a law inspired in part by the disaster in Donora. The law has been used to drastically reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and soot particles from American power plants. But carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming, is a problem on an entirely different scale.
The carbon problem is just too big. In planning for coal power plants we ought to observe all precautions or we would be contributing to global warming and extreme weather problems that are already being manifested in the world.
DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
