Coal Fired Plants: Will They Be The Death Of Us?

James Hansen, a head NASA scientist and climate expert, is pleading with world leaders one more time.  Coal fired plants have been found to be one of the greatest threats to mankind.  Pre-industrial CO2 levels were at a level of 280 parts per million.  The levels have increased to 385 parts per million which is close to the tipping point of no return.  As the ice melts, methane is released into the air, and being one of the worlds highest sources of green house gases, it is further heating up the planet. 

People are not entirely to blame. We are being blind sided by special interest groups and big oil companies who want to ensure that their bank accounts continue to bulge at the seams.  Each of these companies is run by a few people who are getting rich.  Basically a few thousand people on the planet, destroying the planet so they can continue to reap the rewards.  It is also easier to believe that nothing is happening and that everything will be fine.  Making doubt easy to attain.  Nobody wants to think that we are all going to suffer, that millions will die, oceans will rise, and our kids will be left vulnerable. What needs to happen before people take notice?  By the time average people around the world start to believe, it will be too late. China is still pumping out coal fired power plants at a rate of one every ten days.  Do you think China will want to stop, go backwards, and give up their new found wealth?  Do you think that the government in China has told the millions of peasants that they have working in their factories, the dangers of global warming? How long would it take to convince someone that has no education  and just  moved into their first apartment, bought their first car, or had electricity for the first time? A country that now has to loan the United States of America trillions of dollars for us to get back on our feet. That’s got to feel pretty good. They are not going to want to give up their success because it took them to long to get there. 

When corruption goes all the way to the top, how does a normal person stop it?    Most people follow blindly in fear of losing their jobs and not being able to  feed their family.  Do you think that the Chinese workers know what is going on with the environment?  Do you think that they would sacrifice themselves at a rate of 500,000 deaths per year through the effects of pollution that stems from the very plants that they work in?  They have 3 choices; work and take their chances on dying in a factory, be killed or starve to death. The only way to slow them down is to not buy Chinese products. Greed around the world will not let that happen because to many people are making money from cheap garbage products. Millions of people around the world in a comfort zone knowing where there next buck is coming from will not want to rock that boat.  Unfortunate but there it is. Probably half of them even if they knew they were killing the planet would not stop. Because not everyone cares what happens or whether we hand a dying planet off to our kids, and that will be our downfall. Unless governments are forced to enforce certain standards it will never work. The penalties have to be great and enforced around the world. How long would that take if we started right now?  Could global warming be reversed?