Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment produced the following summary report. Energy is essential to our daily lives, and for the past century and a half we have depended on fossil fuels to produce it. But, from extraction to combustion, coal, oil and natural gas have multiple health, environmental and economic impacts that are proving costly for society. Coal carries a heavy burden.
The health and environmental hazards stem from exploration, extraction, processing, transport and combustion, and the large waste stream of air and water pollutants generated. Coal combustion, in over 600 U.S. power plants, also contributes to global warming. The proposed technology of carbon capture and storage (CCS) addresses climate - altering carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, one of the coal by-products, but comes with its own set of costs and risks. This pamphlet is an executive summary of an extensive publication on the true costs of coal. The images are intended to convey the full scope of the impacts.
There are a) measurable effects, b) economically evaluated impacts, and c) qualitative consequences from each life cycle stage of coal. We focus on Appalachia, though coal is mined in other regions of the U.S. and is burned throughout the world.
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