Big Coal by Jeff Goodell

Big Coal

The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future

by Jeff Goodell
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • First Published:
  • Jun 8, 2006, 352 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Apr 2007, 352 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Coal

This article relates to Big Coal

Print Review

Facts & Stats according to Big Coal

  • More than 1/2 of the USA's electricity comes from coal.
  • The USA burns more than a billion tons a year - an average of 20 lbs per person per day.
  • Coal plants account for 40% of carbon dioxide emissions in the USA.
  • According to alternate energy guru Amory Lovins of The Rocky Mountain Institute, by the time you mine the coal, haul it to the power plant, burn it, and then send electricity over the wires to a light bulb, only about 3% of the energy in a ton of coal is transformed into light. Just the energy wasted by coal plants in the USA would be enough to power the entire Japanese economy!
  • In the 1920s there were more than 700,000 USA coal miners, today there are more florists than there are miners.
  • Waste from mountain-top removal mining (removing the mountain to reveal the coal) in Appalachia alone has turned about 400,000 acres of once biologically rich temperate forest into flat, barren wasteland.
  • About 25% of the world's recoverable coal reserves are in the USA (270 billion tons), versus Europe (36 billion tons), China (126 billion tons) and Russia (176 billion tons).

How reliant is the world on fossil fuels?

  • Between 1950 and 2000 the world's population grew by about 140% but consumption of fossil fuels grew by 400%.
  • In 1999, 80% of the energy the world consumed was in the form of fossil fuels (coal: 24%, oil: 37%, gas: 21%); 7% was nuclear (led by France which gets about 50% of its energy requirements from nuclear); The remaining 13% was from renewable sources, of which 11% was from solid biomass including wood*, 2% hydro and less than 1% from other renewables such as geothermal, solar, wind etc.
    Source: EarthTrends 2003.

Interesting to note: The British Empire was built in part on its large deposits of coal. Ironically, through much of the nineteenth century, few people considered coal smoke to be pollution. In fact they considered it a valuable disinfectant because its carbon and sulfur were thought capable of rendering miasma** harmless.

*Technically speaking, wood is a renewable resource, so long as it's harvested in a sustainable fashion - which it often is not.

**Up until the middle of the 18th century it was believed that an invisible, foul smelling gas caused by decomposing matter, known as miasma (from the Greek for pollution) was the cause of diseases such as cholera.

Filed under Nature and the Environment

This "beyond the book article" relates to Big Coal. It originally ran in August 2006 and has been updated for the April 2007 paperback edition. Go to magazine.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
Broken Country (Reese's Book Club)
by Clare Leslie Hall
A love triangle reveals deadly secrets in this thriller for fans of The Paper Palace and Where the Crawdads Sing.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant
    by Liza Tully

    A great detective's young assistant yearns for glory, but first they have learn to get along in this delightful feel good mystery.

  • Book Jacket

    Angelica
    by Molly Beer

    A women-centric view of revolution through the life of Angelica Schuyler Church, Alexander Hamilton's influential sister-in-law.

  • Book Jacket

    The Whyte Python World Tour
    by Travis Kennedy

    Rikki Thunder, drummer for '80s metal band Whyte Python, is on the verge of fame, love—and a spy mission he didn’t expect.

  • Book Jacket

    The Original
    by Nell Stevens

    In a grand English country house in 1899, an aspiring art forger must unravel whether the man claiming to be her long-lost cousin is an impostor.

Win This Book
Win These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas

"[An] atmospheric tale of unexpected hope." —Lisa Wingate, New York Times bestselling author

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

E H L the B

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.