Coal plants lock in 300 billion tons of CO2 emissions

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/28/coal-plants-lock-in-300-billion-tons-of-co2-emissions/



Coal plants lock in 300 billion tons of CO2 emissions
By Climate Central
Thursday, August 28, 2014 14:24 EDT

It seems straightforward to say that when you buy a new car by taking out a loan, you’re committing to spending a certain amount of your income per month on that car for a specific period of time.

Of course, by buying that car, you’re also committing to polluting the atmosphere with some amount of carbon dioxide. But how often do car buyers make that calculation?



A coal-fired power plant in Wyoming.

The same can be said for coal-fired power plants, which spew billions of tons of climate-changing CO2 into the atmosphere each year, and continue to be built across the globe.

Coal-fired power plants are the largest contributors to the atmospheric CO2 concentrations, which last year reached 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in human history — up from 280 ppm in pre-industrial times.