Tan, S. (2021, February 20). China’s carbon Neutral push gathers pace as coal power plants drop below half. Retrieved February 21, 2021, from https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3122419/chinas-carbon-neutral-push-gathers-pace-coal-fired-power
China’s coal-fired powered plants composed less then 50 percent of its total power generation mix. However they still produced 60 percent of the nations energy needs. This sharp change was driven by wind power plants use rising by 178 percent and solar capacity by 60 percent. However, the overall contribution of coal to energy is not expected to drop very rapidly in the short term, but it is expected that more renewable energy sources will continue to be pursued and installed. The use of fossil fuels to provide energy causes the water on earth to heat up, and can have devastating consequences like increasing acidity and extinction. Because water molecules are moving faster, they can accept more gases that increase the oceans acidity. This can cause coral reefs to become bleached, as we are seeing all across the world.
The ways that we get our energy play a huge role in the environment. A lot of the global warming we see today is caused by factories and power plants that use coals, and this expels greenhouse gasses that trap heat in the atmosphere and earth. This is a good sign that China is developing plants that use renewable resource, but I would like to see more of that, as global warming is an immediate issue, especially for the ocean.
Agreed- this is the direction we want to see China go. Not only do they have the climate change piece, but as I’m sure you know they’ve got crazy air pollution. And, they are sitting on a lot of coal so the fact that they are burning it isn’t so surprising. Nice that you made the link to water pollution, which is definitely legit.
We will keep our eyes on China Jake. I hope your topic kept you intrigued this year. Thanks for all your good work working the stories.
The statistics you included in your write up really helped me to understand China’s energy situation and I appreciate how you included information about fossil fuels. I am glad that China is moving in a good direction with their energy and trying to help climate change