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Ah, the black stuff. The fuel of the great industrial revolution (er, that was so two centuries ago - Ed), many still see it as the future for development.
Take Australian PM Tony Abbott who recently declared that it was “good for humanity”, the “foundation of prosperity” - “for now and for the foreseeable future”.
Tony Abbot, Australian PM and... anti-poverty campaigner?
Well here's the thing. Humanitarian organisation Oxfam Australia have done some research and found that actually there are some problems with coal, what with pollution, climate change and all.
If not coal, then what?
But the 36-page report from Oxfam doesn’t just bash coal the whole way through - it looks the alternatives. And it goes into some detail on how much better they are for humanity (and cheaper, and more secure, and easier to intall... the list goes on).
It finds that renewables installations (that’s wind, solar and hydro - though that bit is also controversial) have smashed all records in the last few years. In the case of solar panel installations - predictions made by the International Energy Agency and Greenpeace have been well and truly overtaken:
Cheaper, quicker, healthier, more secure, more equitable
At the community level, renewables offer clean energy (ie as opposed to coal, whose particulate pollutions threatens millions of people with staggering illness and disease) - and actually at a cheaper price.
Much cheaper in some cases, because hooking up to the grid is expensive. And in terms of a steady supply it is a much better option for communities that want to be self-sufficient.
Solar is quite quick to install - providing instant-access home grown energy with no ongoing costs (as there would be with coal). What’s not to love? says Oxfam.
And not to mention that burning coal is the biggest single cause of climate change - which will end up destroying humanity if we don’t do anything about it.
The numbers are on our side
Coal - what is it good for?
Coal companies, mainly. And heads of countries that want to open more multi-billion pound coal mines. They want us all to believe that coal is still our saviour.
The Oxfam report even manages to catch out one time biggest-ever coal company, Peabody Energy, over their dodgy social media PR tactics.
The company counted likes and follows on their social media channels (having probably bought a bunch of likers and followers, says Tcktcktck) to then declare at the G20 in Brisbane that “approximately a half-million citizens from 48 countries had urged G20 leaders to place greater focus on advancing policies to alleviate energy poverty” (which actually sounds alright - until you realise they mean with coal).
Well, thanks to Oxfam Australia's report Powering Up Against Poverty: Why Renewable Energy is the Future now we know what really alleviates energy poverty.
Oh, and here's something we made earlier:
