Coal plants use enough water to supply 1 bn people: Greenpeace

Yahoo – AFP, 22 March 2016

Coal plants use water at almost every step of the process, from mining and 

washing coal to the treatment of combustion waste (AFP Photo/Patrik Stollarz)

Coal plants are draining an already dwindling global water supply, Greenpeace warned on Tuesday, consuming enough to meet the basic needs of one billion people and deepening a worldwide crisis.

Announcing its first global plant-by-plant study, Greenpeace said coal power use will increase with newly built plants, causing "huge stress" on the world's major river basins and threatening communities.

In its report "The Great Water Grab: How the Coal Industry is Deepening the Global Water Crisis", released in Hong Kong, the environmental activist group urged governments to stop depending on coal, a major source of electricity and a pollutant.

China's rise to become the world's 

second-largest economy was largely 

powered by cheap, dirty coal (AFP

Photo/Johannes Eisele)

It highlighted Asian giants China and India as being at the forefront of the battle with their heavy use of coal.

Coal plants use water at almost every step of the process, from mining and washing coal to the treatment of combustion waste, the report said.

"By choosing to continue huge investments in coal to power their economies for decades to come, governments would commit the world to a future of an ever more desperate fight for scarce water resources," the report said.

The watchdog looked at data from the world's 8,359 coal plants and information on another 2,600 planned plants.

It found that the existing plants "consume enough water to meet the basic water needs of over one billion people".

More than a quarter of the existing and proposed plants were located in what they described as a red-list of "over-withdrawal" areas, where water resources are being used faster than they can be replenished.

Over 40 percent of planned and existing plants are in areas categorised as "high water stress".

It named China, India and Turkey as three countries that have the most planned plants on areas that are running dry.

China's rise to become the world's second-largest economy was largely powered by cheap, dirty coal. Although the world's top greenhouse gas emitter has in recent years taken strides into renewable options, it still relies heavily on coal to power its industries and heat homes.

"Policy makers are not aware how much water is being used by coal plants," Harri Lammi, a Greenpeace senior global campaigner on coal, told AFP.

"Huge numbers of people" could be threatened, losing farms and ground water, if coal power expansion continues, he said.

The report added that countries were also risking their economies and social stability as they faced "stark choices" over allocating water supplies to the coal industry or to meet people's basic needs.

It urged governments to switch to renewable energy, which requires less water, and to prevent proposed coal plants in red-list areas from going ahead.

Plants in the most at-risk areas should be phased out and facilities over 40 years old should be retired, it said.

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much.

Water

We've told you that one of the greatest natural resources of the planet, which is going to shift and change and be mysterious to you, is fresh water. It's going to be the next gold, dear ones. So, we have also given you some hints and examples and again we plead: Even before the potentials of running out of it, learn how to desalinate water in real time without heat. It's there, it's doable, and some already have it in the lab. This will create inexpensive fresh water for the planet. 

There is a change of attitude that is starting to occur. Slowly you're starting to see it and the only thing getting in the way of it are those companies with the big money who currently have the old system. That's starting to change as well. For the big money always wants to invest in what it knows is coming next, but it wants to create what is coming next within the framework of what it has "on the shelf." What is on the shelf is oil, coal, dams, and non-renewable resource usage. It hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, has it? Now you will see a change of free choice. You're going to see decisions made in the boardrooms that would have curled the toes of those two generations ago. Now "the worst thing they could do" might become "the best thing they could do." That, dear ones, is a change of free choice concept. When the thinkers of tomorrow see options that were never options before, that is a shift. That was number four. ….”