Coal Crazy : Less Smoke = More Fun + Less Ashma + Less Cancer + Less Wildfires

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is that a purple alien smirking
in that jiggling jello tree
or a two headed squirrel burping
what is reality

i gotta shut those coal plants down
before their smoke stacks suck away
me and some of the kids in town
want sanity today

coal crazy, crazy coal
em-r9 ema7-3, g-1 c-1
brain pains, heads roll

for some the poisons are a little deal
they’re a little sad but don’t know why
or a little cold or a little pain
or a little mad or a little cry

for some the poisons are a big deal
every dose becomes more toxic
it messes up their heads big time
as chemicals go synergistic

coal crazy, crazy coal
brain pains, soot blows

why is that flying hippo babbling
and brown angel spinning round
then turning into skull and bones
as three devils start getting down

i gotta shut those coal plants down
(capo r2 r2=fret2 ) d bm em d
before their smoke stacks suck away
d em g a d
me and other kids in town
want clear minds today

coal crazy, crazy coal
brain pains, heads roll

pains the brain, woe the soul

Coal Crazy / stele c10



Join these Stop Coal teams::

Rainforest Action Network / coal / excerpt::
Coal is the single largest source of human-caused global greenhouse gas emissions and the U.S. is the world’s second largest coal producer. Coal-fired energy generation damages cardiovascular and respiratory health and threatens healthy child development. To protect our climate and public health, we must decrease our country’s reliance on coal and challenge the powerful coal industry while building demand for a clean energy economy.

In the 21st century we should not be using this dangerous and outdated technology to power our homes, schools, hospitals and businesses. Coal mining, burning, and storage all carry significant risks to public health and to the climate. No bank or power utility should invest even one more dollar in coal.

Perhaps the most horrific form of coal mining is mountaintop removal (MTR), which obliterates mountains and poisons communities in Appalachia. In 2013, Barclays bank was the #1 financier of MTR coal worldwide.



Sierra Club / coal / excerpt::
Not only is coal burning responsible for one third of US carbon emissions—the main contributor to climate disruption—but it is also making us sick, leading to as many as 13,000 premature deaths every year and more than $100 billion in annual health costs.

The Beyond Coal campaign’s main objective is to replace dirty coal with clean energy by mobilizing grassroots activists in local communities to advocate for the retirement of old and outdated coal plants and to prevent new coal plants from being built.

Sierra Club’s goals include::
• Retiring one-third of the nation’s more than 500 coal plants by 2020
• Replacing the majority of retired coal plants with clean energy solutions such as wind, solar, and geothermal
• Keeping coal in the ground in places like Appalachia and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin



Natural Resources Defense Council / issues / energy / excerpt::
North America stands at an energy crossroads. As cheap, plentiful conventional oil becomes a luxury of the past, we now face a choice: to set a course for a more sustainable energy future of clean, renewable fuels, or to develop ever-dirtier sources of transportation fuel derived from fossil fuels — at an even greater cost to our health and environment.

The United States is the world’s top oil consumer and thus the primary driver behind the development of new forms of dirty transportation fuels in North America. These fuels are derived from lower-grade, difficult-to-access raw materials, including tar sands, oil shale and coal.

Moving down this road has enormous consequences for the air we breathe, the water we drink, our climate, our wildlands and wildlife. NRDC is actively working to fight the infrastructure that would support increased production and use of these fuels, such as tar sands pipelines, refineries, and mining equipment transportation corridor expansions; oil shale mines; and liquid coal production facilities.



Fossil Free / 350.org / excerpt::
If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage. We believe that educational and religious institutions, governments, and other organizations that serve the public good should divest from fossil fuels.

We are an international network of campaigns and campaigners working toward fossil fuel divestment in our communities. While each campaign is independently run and may bring different emphases and asks depending on their local context, the majority of campaigns are asking institutions to:
• Immediately freeze any new investment in fossil fuel companies;
• Divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds within 5 years

Fossil fuel divestment takes the fossil fuel industry to task for its culpability in the climate crisis. By naming this industry’s singularly destructive influence — and by highlighting the moral dimensions of climate change — Fossil Free by 350.org is initiating a fossil fuel divestment movement to can help break the hold that the fossil fuel industry has on our economy and our governments.



Crazy Stretched Faces

 

VALMONT COAL PLANT Boulder, Colorado:
The Valmont coal plant adds about 2 pounds of mercury a month to the environment and consumes about 2 million gallons of water a day.
The Valmont coal plant has been off line for months at a time in the past half year – do we really need it?
Xcel has 15,000 MW of wind, solar and biomass bids sitting on their desks while the Valmont Plant is only 186 MW ( on its good days.)
Shouldn’t we be spending our energy dollars on clean Colorado wind and solar projects instead of on coal from Wyoming and creating 7 million pounds of CO2 per day while Colorado solar and wind projects await development?

Coal:
Tons Coal Used (2007) 535,000 Tons
Approximate Coal Cost (2007) $26 million
Cost Per MMBTU (2007) $1.78

Emissions [approx]:
CO2 Emitted Per Year 1.3 Million Tons
SO2 Emitted Per Year 500 Tons
NOx Emitted Per Year 1600 Tons
Mercury Emitted Per Year 2040 Pounds
Water [approx]:
Lead Emitted Per Year 309 Pounds
Arsenic Emitted Per Year 302 Pounds
Other Metals 7 Tons
Formaldehyde 4.5 Tons
Hydrochloric acid 2.5 Tons
Hydrogen Flouride 3.9 Tons
Particulate Matter 88 Tons
Acre Feet Consumed Per Year 2459 acrefeet/yr
Gallons Consumed Per Year 801 million gallons
Gallons Per Day 2.1 million gallons

Fly Ash [approx]:
Tons Fly Ash Produced (2007) 91,408 Tons
Cost of Fly Ash Disposal (2007 NonLabor) $425,623
Location of Fly Ash Disposal On site until 2015

Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies for Eliminating 1.3 Million Tons of CO2 [approx]:
Eliminating 215, 996 Passenger Vehicles
Elliminating the Electricity Use of 156, 204 Households
Planting 30 Million Seedlings and Keeping Them Alive for 10 Years

Year Opened: 1964
Original Cost: $121 Million
Maximum Summer Capacity: 186 MW (Note: this plant was off line much of October 2008 – March 2009 due to coal resource and technical problems; may average 160 MW or less in future years)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning



Coal Crazy notes:

These songs highlight the link between mental health and power plants that use coal. Professionals with knowledge of neurology, mercury toxicity, coal plant pollutants and heavy metal toxicity are invited to comment. Also, co-writers and musicians are needed to help buff out these songs.
For the life, Stele Ely

poison in the water
poison in the soil
poison in the air
poison makes me boil

coal crazy, crazy coal
stop the poison or heads will roll

coal crazy, crazy coal
a black hole that makes heads roll

or maybe it’s a cancer slurping
the toxin rain I chance to drink
or maybe it’s a fat cat smurking
its one of those I think

sometimes ears are weirdly ringing
sometimes eyes go itchy stingy
I’m so alive, I’m so in love
but afraid I’m going crazy

coal crazy, crazy coal
woe my brain, woe my soul


is that a purple alien smirking
in that jiggling jellow tree
or a two headed squirrel burping
what is reality

i gotta shut those coal plants down
before their black holes suck away
me and lots of kids in town
who want sanity today

burning coal is poison by the ton
SO2, VOCs, NOX, hydrogen fluoride
lead, arsenic and mercury
hydrochloric acid, formaldehyde

coal crazy, crazy coal
pains the brain, pains the soul

for some the poisons are no big deal
they’ve got genetic immunity
or the wind blows in right direction
or maybe they’re just lucky

for some the poisons are a little deal
they’re a little sad but don’t know why
or a little cold or a little pain
or a little mad or a little cry

but for some the poisons are a big deal
it messes up their heads big time
every dose becomes more toxic
as the chemicals go synergistic

coal crazy, crazy coal
woe my brain, woe my soul

I see the smokestack smoking
like an angel dancing round
but angel starts to moan
then melts into a skull and bone

i gotta shut those coal plants down
before their black holes suck away
me and other kids in town
who want clear minds today

coal crazy, crazy coal
pains the brain, pains the soul


without chords:
Coal Crazy / stele c10
is that a purple alien smirking
in that jiggling jellow tree
or a two headed squirrel burping
what is reality?
i gotta shut those coal plants down
before their smoke stacks suck away
me and some of the kids in town
want sanity today
coal crazy, crazy coal
brain pains, heads roll
for some the poisons are a little deal
they’re a little sad but don’t know why
or a little cold or a little pain
or a little mad or a little cry
for some the poisons are a big deal
every dose becomes more toxic
it messes up their heads big time
as chemicals go synergistic
coal crazy, crazy coal
brain pains, soot blows
coal crazy, crazy coal
brain pains, soot blows
why is that flying hippo babbling
and brown angel spinning round
then turning into skull and bones
as three devils start getting down
i gotta shut those coal plants down
before their smoke stacks suck away
me and other kids in town
want clear minds today
coal crazy, crazy coal
brain pains, heads roll
pains the brain, woe the soul


*** COAL CRAZY v2 *** Christopher Macor/TingZen c10
A long long time ago
A monster claimed the earth
His smokestack billowed fumes
And he filled the air with dirt
But people didn`t mind
He gave them energy
He made the people blind
They were coal crazy

The rivers were abused
They filled with mercury
Forty pounds a year
People were coal crazy
CO2 and other gases
Fogged the atmosphere
They didn`t seem to mind
Seemed there was nothing to fear

But then the evidence came in
Brain, kidneys, lungs
Eyes, ears and lack of coordination
Schizophrenia, and Alzheimer`s disease
Autism, acid rain and how about extinction!

A long long time ago
A monster claimed the earth
His smokestack billowed fumes
And he filled the air with dirt
But people changed their minds Despite the energy
They shut the coal plant down
They found their sanity TingZen c10



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Comments

4 responses to “Coal Crazy : Less Smoke = More Fun + Less Ashma + Less Cancer + Less Wildfires”

  1. SteleEly Avatar

    via http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global-warming/
    This is Holly R.'s story about coal:: I live in Minnesota. Back in the 1990s, I put my time, energy and body on the line in repeated organizing, demonstrating, non-violent actions and the like with the Prairie Island Coalition and Greenpeace to help bring renewable energy to the State of Minnesota. The main thrust of the action was to stop nuclear power by stopping the proposed nuke waste dump (also INCREDIBLY DIRTY, but that is another story for another time). We lost the nuke part, but due to the legislation we got passed, we forced the utility company start implementing renewables. Now we have wind farms and my house is powered by 100% wind power in the form of credits I buy.

  2. SteleEly Avatar

    VIA David Roberts: Here’s a short, plainspoken video from the Sierra Club that explains why coal sucks:
    It was one thing when there were no viable alternatives to coal — you could make the brute utilitarian argument that all the lost lives, suffering, and ecological destruction were worth it for the benefits of electrification. But now there are alternatives. That means the suffering imposed by coal is a choice. And it’s the wrong choice. Phasing out coal entirely is one of the great humanitarian projects of the 21st century. http://grist.org/climate-energy/coal-is-the-enemy

  3. SteleEly Avatar

    The fight over lead: It’s like all pollution fights rolled into one By David Roberts
    … there is copious neurological research showing that “even moderately high levels of lead exposure are associated with aggressivity, impulsivity, ADHD, and lower IQ,” which makes a pretty strong (if defeasible) case for causation. http://grist.org/article/the-fight-over-lead-its-

  4. SteleEly Avatar

    Greenpeace Africa / No future in coal, climate killer must go. http://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/
    Greenpeace activists dropped a banner from a crane inside the construction grounds of ESKOM’s latest colossal coal-fired power plant, Kusile – reading ‘Kusile: climate killer’.
    At the same time, other activists locked themselves to gates at the plant’s front entrance – protesting with banners saying ‘green jobs now’ and ‘no future in coal’ – calling on ESKOM, the utility company, to stop its coal addiction and instead invest in renewable energy projects in South Africa. http://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/

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