One thing I always associate with Christmas is terrible jokes. It might be that and awful gag has just fallen out of a broken cracker or, after a bit too much brandy, Dad decides to update us on how his comedy act is coming along.
But the coal industry have outdone us all this Christmas by giving us the “Clean Coal Carolers”, a stunning piece of self-satire.
It’s hard to know where to start with this absurd gimmick from the “clean coal” lobby. The fact that the animation has a South Park flavour to it makes the already implausible concept of clean coal even more laughable than usual. But to try and make lumps of greenhouse-polluting carbon into warm and fuzzy characters must make the coal lobby reconsider the contract of whoever is doing their public relations.
We’ve got only a few years to start making massive dents in greenhouse gas emissions, and that’s only going to be done by tackling the biggest sources of CO2 such as coal. The harsh reality of “clean coal” is that even the most wildly optimistic estimates of when it could become commercially available are beyond the timeframe to make major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
There are many other reasons why clean coal is a dirty lie, but you can read them in a credible piece of work here. Most importantly, the “clean coal” myth distracts us from the fact that we have ready to go solutions in renewable energy and energy efficiency that can begin substituting for coal-fired electricity right now, creating a net gain in jobs and new investment opportunities for whichever economies decide to support these real solutions.
By the way, if you use the social networking site Facebook, you can report the Clean Coal Carolers on a link at the bottom of their page. Facebook’s terms of use say that you can report something as, amongst other things, offensive, obscene and demeaning. If you want to do something about this, you could report them as offensive to and demeaning of your intelligence!
Happiness and mirth to you all this festive season!
Author’s note: 13 December. It appears that the Clean Coal Carolers have been removed from both Facebook and the America’s Coal website (where they originally appeared). The reason provided for their early wrap up – with a full 12 days to go before Christmas – was that it’s time to “head home for the holidays”. Or perhaps it was due to an uncomfortable amount of critical attention that they took the carolers down. Thanks to all of you who wrote in to protest this lame PR stunt from the coal industry and commiserations to all of you who missed the opportunity to see them! Julien
