Extremists And Deniers by Les May

JUST as I don’t think it is would be particularly helpful to refer to the author of the recent article about the proposed new coal mine in Cumbria as a ‘climate change denier’, I don’t think it is helpful for him to refer to people who have opposed this new mine as ‘climate change extremists’.

Unfortunately the one substantive issue here, the fact that coal is needed as a source of carbon in the production of steel, is lost in this use of emotive language and the desire to turn this into an attack on the Labour party, along with a passing reference to Margaret Thatcher.

Providing jobs does not trump every other consideration. We would think it absurd to argue that we should not reduce the number of plastic bags being used because it will mean fewer jobs manufacturing them or that we should still be burning coal to heat our homes to keep miners in work. In both cases we recognise that there are wider issues to be taken into consideration Ditto the production of coking coal.

At present there is no viable alternative to the use of coal as a source of carbon to combine with the oxygen which is chemically bound to

iron in ores and liberate the free metal. The manufacture of iron and steel is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions and the dumping of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is the major cause of the increase in global temperatures. A warmer atmosphere and warmer oceans means more energy in the global weather system which is the driver of climate change. Nor is it just about weather; an increase in ocean temperature will cause the water of the oceans to expand resulting in a rise in sea level.

But the present lack of a viable alternative does not mean that we should not be doing all we can to mitigate the effects of this.

Producing coke from coal for use in blast furnaces is a very dirty process with a high potential for producing pollution. It is also wasteful compared with iron smelting by means of, for example, direct gasification of coal. This and similar processes would reduce the demand for coal in the production of iron, and as a consequence reduce both the amount of carbon dioxide dumped into the atmosphere and the number of mining jobs.

We live in a liberal democracy so anyone who wants to attack the Labour party is free to do so. But I don’t think it is a good idea to gloss over the long term effects of carrying on dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from burning coal when doing so.

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