Coal energy and environmental impacts: Introduction

Within the last decade, the importance of integrating the environment, people, and climate has transitioned from being an academic concern (e.g., WEF, 2011) into a broadly societal concern as the forecasted realities of environmental deterioration and global climate change come to pass, creating urgent public and environmental health issues. Joyce Msuya, Acting Executive Director of UN Environment Programme, stated, “The science is clear. The health and prosperity of humanity is directly tied with the state of our environment” (UN News, 2019). The sheer magnitude and complexity of these issues, particularly within the broader narrative of a ballooning world population and unsustainable consumption patterns, requires a coordinated, transdisciplinary, and international effort to increase public awareness, and develop and implement an effective response. Scientists, governments, global leaders, policy makers, intergovernmental organizations, stakeholders, and even concerned citizens have coalesced around an urgent need to address the profound, and enduring impacts, that human activities pose to the environment as the projected consequences of inaction threatens the health – and very existence – of the human population. Central to these discussions is developing policy/energy usage strategies within the context of climate change, where a growing (and some would argue “overwhelming”) body of evidence links global environmental change and ecosystem responses with the extraction and utilization of fossil fuels, particularly coal. Coal, the “largest source of solid fuel in the world” (Miller, 2011), has been universally (and indiscriminately) embraced by civilizations across the entire globe for thousands of years, playing a pivotal role in the creation and advancement of the industrial revolution(s), and the development of modern technologies. Unfortunately, this success comes at a price, as the consequences of long-term usage on air, water, soil, ecosystems, animal and human health are significant. The removal of coal from the global energy mix has been internationally prioritized as governments seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and restrict the development of coal mines, power plants, and associated infrastructure (Brown and Speigel, 2019). In this special issue of Energy Geoscience, “Coal Energy and Environmental Impacts”, we explore the profound impact and influence (positive and negative) that this important energy resource has at the water-energy-food-health nexus and offer insight into the various facets of coal science, the environmental and human health impacts of coal, and the development of energy resources. The introductory article by Hower and Groppo (2021) uses electron microscopy to investigate the modes of occurrence, and distribution, of rare earth element (REE) minerals in fly ash. Given the critical importance of REE within industrial applications, the recovery of REE from coal combustion by-products may offer a promising solution within a global context of supply and demand.

• Autores: Silva, Luis F. O; Wolfe, Amy
• Tipo de recurso: Article of journal
• Fecha de publicación: 2022
• Institución: Corporación Universidad de la Costa
• Repositorio: REDICUC - Repositorio CUC
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.cuc.edu.co:11323/9441
• Acceso en línea: https://hdl.handle.net/11323/9441; https://repositorio.cuc.edu.co/
• Palabra clave: Coal Worker; Appalachian Region; Coal Mining
• Rights: openAccess
• License: Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 4.0 Internacional (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)