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Stories about: coal


Harmful CO2 and Fly Ash Turned into Energy

Coal-fired power plants are currently blamed worldwide for their contribution in accelerating climate change, qualified as worst polluters in EPA reports, because of their enormous amount of harmful emissions generated annually. A new green technology developed, tested and improved by MP BioMass plans to change this...

16 January 2012
04:46 GMT

Actor Abhay Deol Flies on Hot Air Balloon to Protect Forests

These days, almost every eco-friendly campaign benefits from the support of a worldwide known celebrity. In this case, actor Abhay Deol has recently decided to join Greenpeace officials on a hot air balloon trip in India, part of their 'Forests no Coal' initiative. The contribution of a public figure, rep...

11 January 2012
06:42 GMT

'Great Dying' May Have Been Caused by Coal Explosion

Following a new scientific study, researchers have proposed a new potential cause for the Permian-Triassic (P-Tr) extinction event, which is informally known as the Great Dying. The team says that a huge burning of coal may have brought about the largest extinction in our planet's history. The Great Dying was s...

21 December 2011
08:39 GMT

Google's 'Green Energy Czar' Employed by Facebook

Bill Weihl who made a name for himself after becoming Google's “Green Energy Czar” has decided to start working for Facebook. He will occupy a similar position within the company and join the team that has recently decided to give up coal starting next month. Since both major companies share similar...

20 December 2011
09:39 GMT

Facebook Adds Renewables as Friend

Apparently, Facebook has officially decided to “unfriend” coal and turn all its attention to the much more popular renewable sector. After 20 months of attempts, 700,000 activists have finally managed to convince the major Internet company that greener is definitely better. Facebook announced it would...

15 December 2011
09:25 GMT

Utah National Park Meets Dirty Coal Mine

Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park is an amazing reserve with a high conservation value. Unfortunately, every breath of fresh air could be tainted by the coal-exploiting operations developed by a newly-announced controversial project. A coal mine occupying no less than 3,500 acres of land could be opened in th...

2 December 2011
04:54 GMT

Chase Is Most Influent 'Climate Killer' Bank

Dirty coal business is still in the game mostly because it's profitable. Banks know it best, since they invest billions of dollars every year in this field of activity. A recent reports reveals that JP Morgan Chase is, by far, the most influent player, backing the coal industry with no less than $22 billion (&eu...

2 December 2011
03:30 GMT

Dirty Coal Business Continues to Flourish in South Africa

Coal-burning operations accelerate climate change, but this fact doesn't stop South Africa from obtaining profit at the environment's expense. The host of the climate summit is actually one of the most important sources of pollution. Currently, 90% of its entire energy production depends on coal, while t...

30 November 2011
07:40 GMT

Transitioning Towards a Carbon-free World

With the depletion of the world's fossil fuel reserves staring us in the face, we need to realize that we are now heading towards the Big Transition, which will seriously test our resolve, a new report shows.According to many analysts, the Peak Oil event and the subsequent drop in resources are the main events t...

8 October 2010
09:08 GMT

Purdue Experts Study Synthetic Fuel Production

A team of scientists from the Purdue University has recently put together a new facility for the study of synthetic fuel, whose aim is to make it easier for experts to learn how fossil fuels such as coal and biomass are broken down.These substances are usually placed inside machines called gasifiers, which break them...

15 September 2010
03:00 GMT

Authorities Want China Powered by Liquid Coal

One of the main methods through which China can avoid becoming dependent on foreign oil is if it extends its conversion program that transforms coal into oil.The Asian nation wants to avoid becoming dependent on foreign resources, such as the United States is now. Authorities in Beijing are willing to invest massivel...

25 August 2010
06:16 GMT

Fossil Fuels Will Continue to Rule the World

A new study shows that, even with all their downfalls, fossil fuels are still reigning supreme when it comes to people' choices for fueling cars, power plants and so on.Even though scientists across the globe are drawing attention to the fact that fossil fuels need to be replaced, authorities seem to be unwillin...

25 August 2010
05:58 GMT

UK to Host CCS-Enabled Coal Power Plant

A site at Hunterston, near Largs, in the United Kingdom, will become the place where the first experimental coal-fired power plant outfitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology will be built. The earliest stages of the planning process for the new facility have begun today, and, if the project is complet...

15 March 2010
10:02 GMT

Compressed-Air Wind Energy Could Displace Coal

Using wind farms for electricity production is one of the most environmentally-friendly methods of obtaining electricity nowadays. This industry really took off over the past couple of decades, with engineers designing ever larger and more efficient propeller blades and turbines. But occupying vast areas with these i...

10 March 2010
03:32 GMT

Coal May Have Caused the Permian-Triassic Extinction

Some 251.4 million years ago, the Permian Age came to an abrupt end, when a massive extinction event, known among experts as the “Great Dying”, killed off just about everything on the planet, with just a few exceptions. The event marked the beginning of the Triassic Age, and experts have been puzzling ove...

6 November 2009
15:41 GMT

Australian Miners Escalate Their Protest

Over the past few weeks, coal and natural gas companies have intensified their efforts to hinder the Australian government's plans, which call for the introduction of a carbon-trading scheme by 2010. Officials from these companies say that the new legislation, which is due to be voted in June, will cripple produ...

2 April 2009
09:00 GMT

Mountaintop Mining Projects Placed on Hold

The US Environmental Protection Agency has finally come to its senses following its period of submission to political will during the Bush administration, and has finally put all the permits of mountaintop mining operators on hold, pending further investigation. As Bush left the White House, he granted his personal f...

25 March 2009
07:38 GMT

Wind Power More Reliable than Coal and Oil

One of the main arguments brought by critics to renewable energy such as solar and wind power is that these methods of generating electricity are very expensive, and that continuing to produce the needed amounts of power from oil and coal is justified by the lower costs, especially in the crippled economy. Now, new a...

16 March 2009
07:25 GMT

Capitol to Clean Its Own Power Plant

The US Congress now finds itself in a dilemma – how to impose changes in the way America produces electrical energy, while at the same time keeping standards high. And the best place to start thinking about this is the Capital Power Plant, a 99-year-old facility that is supplying power to the important building...

2 March 2009
04:40 GMT

China Drops Its Carbon Emission Rates

According to researchers at Stanford University, who are closely monitoring China's carbon emissions, the country has leveled off its impressive energetic sector growth in the last months of 2008, compared to the same time frame in previous years. This doesn't mean that the country descended from the top pl...

7 January 2009
03:33 GMT

Activists Persuade Banks Not to Fund the Coal Industry

After Bush and the EPA made the coal mining industry a going-away present, in the bill that allowed it to dump debris from its mountaintop exploitations – in other words, the sites where they blew the top of mountains and picked the coal that came out – activists from several environmental groups managed ...

9 December 2008
05:54 GMT

Environmentalists Turn to Obama for Help in Mining Decision

Last week, the Bush administration again favored the fossil fuel industry over the environment, when it allowed for new legislation, regulating the amount of debris that mountaintop mining companies could throw away into adjacent streams in valleys. As soon as the decision was announced, environmental groups started ...

8 December 2008
05:21 GMT

MIT Develops 'Partial Capture' Emission Concept

The construction of new coal-powered power plants in the US has now grinded to an almost complete standstill, because tighter carbon capture and storage regulations are in place in most states. And because most builders cannot afford the technology needed for sequestration, they simply prefer not to build the plant a...

5 December 2008
15:01 GMT

LA Is Home to the Largest Solar Panel Initiative in the World

Approximately 90 days from now, LA inhabitants will have a chance to look over the plan that will make their city one of the most environmental-friendly on the face of the Earth. The project, called Solar LA, was announced on Monday by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who says that countless solar panels will be installed...

5 December 2008
04:36 GMT

US and China Find Common Ground in Solar Power

Two of the largest solar power research institutes, the Institute of Electrical Engineering (IEE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the American National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), with the express purpose of forwarding international research and tech...

4 December 2008
06:56 GMT

Polish Miners Attack Greenpeace Activists in Poland

Peaceful Greenpeace protesters were met with violence by Poznan miners on Monday, as they attempted to write STOP next to a huge bulldozer, used for coal transport. The miners prevented the activists from protesting and removed them from the area. Police arrived at the scene shortly and separated the two groups. This...

25 November 2008
04:56 GMT

Greenpeace Blocked Rotterdam Dock This Weekend

Rotterdam's Mississippi harbor was completely blocked during this weekend, as two Greenpeace ships, the Rainbow Warrior and the Beluga II, prevented coal shipments on their way to the Netherlands from reaching their destination. The move was saluted by other environmental organizations as well. They said that th...

17 November 2008
02:34 GMT

IEA Decides – Coal Will Dominate Until 2030

The International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that, most likely, coal would remain the world's top energy source for the next couple of decades, until 2030. The report predicted continued increases in coal usage worldwide, but especially in non OPEC countries, such as China. By 2015, electrical current produce...

14 November 2008
10:01 GMT

China Moves for a Low Carbon Economy

The Chinese official said on Thursday (October 30th) that the nation had no intention of reducing its enormous yearly carbon output anytime soon. Instead, he said that the largest developing country would push for the introduction of efficient pollution-management methods, such as carbon traps and new filtering syste...

3 November 2008
07:53 GMT

China's Coal Took $250 Billion Last Year

According to the latest estimates, China is the world's largest producer and consumer of coal, having already brought, or planning to bring on-line a large number of coal-powered power plants, in the nation's rich Northern coal basin. But with higher rates of consumption come very high risks, translated in ...

28 October 2008
01:15 GMT

Strange: Traditional Power Plants Emit More Radiation than Nuclear Ones

There is a general misconception that nuclear power plants produce dangerous levels of radiation during their electric energy production activity, or that they are just another disaster waiting to happen. The truth is that aside the fact that they produce energy in an extremely efficient manner, without emitting any ...

15 December 2007
04:58 GMT

World's Oldest Rainforest

A rainforest represents an explosion of life, the peak of biological diversity on Earth. But the trees that make the current rainforest appeared for the first time during the Cretaceous, at the sunset of the dinosaur realm. So, when did the first rainforest appear? And how did it look like?Now a British-American te...

23 April 2007
05:19 GMT


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