Last weekend’s Financial Times featured a story on it’s front page headlined:
Power companies predict return of coal
The story noted:
“The world is on the brink of a big switch from gas to coal as the preferred fuel for power stations … [A]bout 40 per cent of the orders for electricity turbines in the next decade will be for coal-powered units, with the share of gas-fired plants falling to between 25 and 30 per cent.”
What the FT did NOT report are the implications – as climate change is spiraling out of control. Coal, of course, is the most carbon-intensive of all fuels, releasing twice as much atmospheric CO2 per unit of energy produced as natural gas.
What is surprising is that this newspaper’s coverage of climate change has been better than most. But clearly there is a disconnect between its climate coverage and its coverage of the energy business.
As the world’s large manufacturers of electrical generating facilities forecast a big jump in coal burning, we can expect to see the results in terms of increased climate chaos – a consequence the Financial Times failed even to reference.
Given this kind of reportorial negligence, the climate skeptics can take an extended vacation. The press is doing their work for them.
