Solar Power

[jdbenner]

I understood that burning wood added to our greenhouse problems, is that correct?

Only if you burn it faster than it grows.  Plants get their carbon from the CO2 in the air so all the CO2 released by burning one tree should be recovered by its replacement growing. 

glactus, you are right about coal being much cleaner than it once was.  However it still has problems.  Since we are now worried about "Green house gasses" the CO2 could be an issue. SO2 is still an issue, But we can clean most of it up before it leads to acid rain.  But coal mining is a very dangerous occupation.  Which may or may not be an issue with the humanitarian in us.

[DonPMitchell]

I used to live in Minnesota, and have driven thorugh the Dakotas many times.  Most of the US coal reserves are out there in the west.  High quality hard coal was mined in the east, with deep mine shafts and dangerous underground operation.  Watch the film _Matewan_ sometime to get a slice of that life and the labor politics of the era.

But the soft coal (lignite) in the west is generally closer to the surface and is strip mined.  Much safer for people, but not particularly nice to the environment.  And the lignite-burning power plants in North Dakota can be seen 50 miles away, from the black column of smoke that rises from them.

Of course, in some ways petroleum and coal are biofuels, just very old biofuels.  Think back to when the Earth of tropical from pole to pole, the atmosphere was 30 percent oxygen, and dragonflies had three-foot wing spans.  Hey, if we burn enough carbon, we may just get back to that again!