Putting Coal Back

IAN DUNLOP was once a high powered executive within the coal industry of Australia, which is among the world's leading coal burners and exporters. For a time he headed the Australian Coal Association, having been in the industry since the nineteen fifties. In this capacity he served as a prime spokesperson for the industry, espousing the virtues of "clean coal", which does not exist, smugly dismissing any need for sustainable alternative sources in a continent bathed in sunshine and swept by steady winds. He made big money by telling big lies. Then, he began to take a hard look around, at the condition of the world. Educated in basic chemistry, he reluctantly accepted the reality of climate change and ecological disaster through fossil fuels. He could see for himself that the ocean is encroaching upon coastal Australia, where nearly all Australians live. Increased drought, causing wildfires of historic proportions, soot hovering above previously pristine cities and countryside, a lung cancer epidemic; these nightmarish facts could no longer elude his perception. So, he turned traitor. He came over to the renewable energy community, and, in his later years, is has become a leading advocate of rapid conversion to wind and solar. And, he puts his money where his mouth his, funneling investment into his new passion; saving the planet. The most horrible nightmare imaginable is here, now, in reality, and Ian Dunlop, like most of us, knows it. The crazy weather is only going to get worse; its too late to prevent it. Even the baby boomer generation is going to live to see catastrophic consequences. Climate change is already killing hundreds of thousands of people per year, and science can prove it, with facts. Heaven help our children and grand children. The way things are going now, within one hundred years the Earth will be nearly uninhabitable, even if fundamental political and economic changes are made now. Drastic and immediate change is now required to prevent planetary environmental collapse and the extinction of all life on earth. The same right wing lunacy which currently infects the United States and much of Europe has spread to Australia. Ian Dunlop, like all perceptive people, understands that if Donald Trump is reelected, game over.