Over 110 global environmental groups have came out against chimerical coal industry plans to bury carbon emissions [ark]. This coincides with Greenpeace’s release of a new report entitled “False Hope” which correctly concludes that false promises of carbon capture and storage (CCS) [search] prolongs the agony of coal dependence. CCS is revealed to be an untested myth that threatens to lock us into antiquated coal energy [search] and a obliterated atmosphere. CCS will not be ready in time (or maybe ever), wastes climate resources, is risky and undermines more rigorous approaches focused upon renewable energy.

It is pleasing to see Greenpeace join other biocentric groups in understanding ending the use of coal is essential to save the climate. Yet as with ancient forests, the question of “clean coal” splits the environmental movement. What is so mystifying is why generally rigorous environmental groups like Greenpeace — along with so many other groups including Rainforest Action Network — are so visionary on coal while continuing to insist that logging of ancient forests, equally antiquated and damaging to not only the climate but also biodiversity, can be certified as being environmentally acceptable. The economic dislocation caused by ending ancient forest logging would be much less than ending use of coal. Both burning and cutting are the fundamental underpinnings of contemporary ecolgoical decline.