Beat CO2: Plant a tree; put out coal fires

Per the editor’s request, here are some “new points” to add to the current climate discussion.

Carbon dioxide gets most of the blame. There are two things we can do productively even if CO2 is not bad stuff. Everyone should agree, from radical tree-huggers to laissez-faire capitalists.

First: plant some trees. They soak up CO2. Any objections there?

Second: Put out the coal mine fires.

Go to your favorite search engine and look for “Smithsonian” and “Fire in the Hole.” You will get an article by Kevin Krajick from the May 2005 issue of the magazine. Although most of the article is about the fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania, Krajick sums up the worldwide problem quite well. These coal fires (properly called coal-seam fires because many were started by lightning hitting naturally exposed deposits), are as dirty as coal-burning can get. In addition to sulfur, these fires emit mercury, arsenic, fluorine, and selenium.

Other compounds emitted by these fires affect the ozone layer. EARTH Magazine, September 2010, says, “Furthermore, such fires also contribute compounds destructive to the ozone layer, including ethane, ethene, propane and propene… [I]t is possible that the emissions from thousands of coal fires burning around the world could have a detrimental effect on Earth’s ozone layer, and in addition, could contribute significantly to the greenhouse effect.”

There may be more than 6,000 coal-seam fires worldwide. It is estimated that these fires emit more CO2 than all the cars and trucks in North America. In my opinion, we could add Europe and bovine flatulence to that total.

So, instead of enduring a multitude of regulations, let’s support and publicize efforts to combat coal-seam fires. The most populous countries, China, India, and Indonesia, aren’t going to co-operate anyway, and their fires are the worst. While they continue to pollute, we will be left to freeze to death in the dark with empty stomachs and zero bank balances.

If the money wasted on Solyndra and other “green” failures, were used to combat the Centralia fire (for example) we might develop effective methods and learn how to put it out. After the Gulf War, American technology was able to put out oil field fires in Kuwait in a few weeks after some “experts” said it would take years. We should be able to make some progress with coal-seam fires.

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently released its fifth assessment report. In all 6,394 pages there is no mention of coal-seam or coal mine fires. There are references to peat-bed fires, so it seems unlikely that the contributors would be unaware of coal-seam fires.

Did the IPCC deliberately ignore the huge amount of CO2 generated by coal-seam fires? They firmly believe that human activity is causing global warming and their case would be considerably weakened if they included CO2 from those fires. Their latest report reeks with panic and the word “mitigation” is rampant, used 5,968 times. In this context, I think it is a synonym for “control,” “suppression,” and “tyranny.”

Research on coal fires is not lacking. The subject just needs more publicity and participants. Search the Internet, you’ll find plenty of data.

So, dear readers, help me out here. After planting some trees to hug, write to your members of Congress and ask them to stop writing restrictive regulations and get some action on these coal fires. Instead of screaming panic and denials at each other, let’s work together to get those fires out.

How about it?

Dale P. Ferguson, of Polson, is a retired engineer and technical writer.