UNC coal burning needs to be halted

As a student at UNC and a North Carolina resident I am very glad to see the attention that the burning of coal at UNC is bringing.

Although coal appears to be a cheap energy source, North Carolinians and Appalachians pay for coal in many ways. When coal is mined, toxic chemicals such as arsenic, lead, and mercury leach into the local rivers and groundwater. The people of Appalachia pay for this by having their drinking water contaminated, and having their local ecosystem collapse.

In 2008, 63 percent of UNC’s CO2 emissions were produced by burning coal in the on-site plant. Given that carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas causing human-induced climate change, by not eliminating carbon dioxide we are adding to a problem that will affect everyone. These problems include rising sea levels that threaten to submerge the Outer Banks under water. Also, more erratic weather patterns in the form of droughts, hurricanes, and winter storms that would damage agriculture and potential cause millions of dollars of damage.

Finally, given that coal is a finite resource and that a large structural change in energy either takes a long time or is extremely expensive, the sooner we start, the cheaper this unavoidable structural change will be in the long run. As responsible citizens, it is our duty to pressure UNC to be a leader in sustainable energy so that our children don’t have to pay for the global warming pollution that we produce today will cause for them.

Felipe Jolles

Chapel Hill

Jolles is editorial coordinator of The Sierra Club Coal Free Campaign at Chapel Hill.