Coal is dirty, toxic, abundant and cheap. Mining it disfigures the earth. Using it for fuel or electricity generation is unsustainable. Burning it emits deadly pollutants and greenhouse gases, and is the major cause of global warming. Right?  Max Allen talks with environmentalists and energy scientists about why much conventional wisdom about coal in the 21st century is just plain wrong.
Part 1 airs March 12; Part 2 airs March 19.

Resources

There are tens of thousands of books, reports and technical papers about coal and climate.  Google finds millions of references to climate and millions more to coal. 

Here are some ideas related to our IDEAS programmes:

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum - Palaentology Online
About a previous warm period, and what happened.

Carbon Taxes: A Review of Experience and Policy Design Considerations - National Renewable Energy Laboratory
About approaches to a carbon tax.

Deaths Per TWH by energy source
What forms of energy production are dangerous?

Tar Sands Oil Extraction - The Dirty Truth
The Case Against "Dirty Oil" -  a video collage from various sources by SustainableGuidance .

Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation  
The climate "bible(s)" from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Climate Change Reconsidered - 2011 Interim Report of the Non-Governmental International Panel on Climate Change 
The "contra-bible."

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report 2007 
A synthesis of the IPCC's 4th assessment report (the fifth will be published 2013-2014).

Watts Up With That? - Anthony Watts' blog about climate.

Judith Curry and her blog Climate Etc. 
What Can We Learn From Climate Models by Judith Curry.

Joe Romm's blog: ThinkProgress

About Patricia Adams and the Energy Probe Research Foundation

Cloud Control by Bjorn Lomborg,  the New Statesman, November 1, 2009.

Understanding the Global Warming Debate by Warren Meyer, Forbes, February 9, 2012.


Reading

Bjorn Lomborg, editor: Smart Solutions to Climate Change - Comparing Costs and Benefits.  Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN:9780521138567. With chapters by Christopher Green and Isabel Galiana (heard on IDEAS), Eric Bickel (about geo-engineering and marine cloud whitening), and others.

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Demon Coal Participants

Patricia Adams, Economist  and  Executive Director of Probe International, Toronto.

Judith Curry, Professor and Chair, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.

Isabel Galiana, Economist, McGill University, Montreal.
 
Christopher Green, Economist, McGill University, Montreal.

Mark Jaccard, Professor, Energy and Materials Research Group, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.

Bjørn Lomborg, Statistician and Adjunct Professor, Copenhagen Business School;  Director,  Copenhagen Consensus Center.

David Sawyer, Director, Climate Change & Energy, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Ottawa.

Proceedings of the Senate Standing Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources:

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Twenty-fourth meeting on: The current state and future of Canada's energy sector (including alternative energy), Ottawa.

As individuals:
Ross McKitrick, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Guelph.

Ian D. Clark, Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa.

Timothy Patterson, Professor of Geology, Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University.