Compromising the Future?
By Ranil Senanayake-November 23, 2014
What words can be used to describe people who sell and destroy the birthright and culture of their own people for personal or political gain? To answer this question it is critical to understand the scope of the words birthright and culture. A Birthright is the privilege or possession that a person has or is believed to be entitled to as soon as he or she is born. The primary birthright of any human is the right to life. Once alive, the ability to continue living is a consequence of the environment that the person is born into. Thus the birthright of any individual will be to enjoy whatever health and wellbeing the environment that they have been born into can provide. While there is a great discrepancy in the nature of the environments that each of us are born into, the condition of that environment we are born into must represent our most fundamental birthright. Any degradation of that environment must transgress that right and must be seen as transgressing our fundamental human right. Culture is the evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols, to act imaginatively and creatively; and the distinct ways that people, who live differently, classified and represented their experiences, and acted creatively. Culture represents the arts and
other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. With these definitions in mind, we can examine the intent and the consequences of the decisions to create a nation dependent on coal fired power plants as their primary source of energy. Irrespective of the debate on energy profligacy as an indicator of ‘development’, it will be of value to look at the human cost of the currently promoted cheap energy source ‘Coal’. Is this activity compromising our fundamental right, the right to life? In a healthy population the right to life has been expressed well, a people enjoying a high quality of air, should not have their right to life compromised by the choice of our sources of energy. We are being bullied into a future that depends of the burning of coal for our power needs. Do we need to invest our capital in creating a slew of national problems? But let us look at birthright and culture. In committing this nation to be coal dependent what might be the possible consequences to our birthright and culture? The greatest of all gifts is the gift of health, said the Buddha. Does coal bring health to a nation? Two nations ensnared in having to burn coal for their power needs are China and India. The South China Morning Post Wed Nov 5th 2014 reports that the pollution caused by coal burning killed an estimated 670,000 in China in 2012 In a study of the cost of coal burning for power plants a new study made during 2012 and officially backed by the China Academy of Environmental planning who agreed with research by Tsinghua and Peking Universities that suggested that the massive health problems that China today was a consequence of burning coal to drive the power plants they conclude that a sum 260 Yuan must be added to each tonne of Coal burnt to account for the health cost to the nation. In addition to the well-known consequences of Lead and Mercury, Sulphuric compounds and Oxides of Nitrogen are produced by Coal burning
power plants, all of which produce gasses that mix with the ambient air and degrade the human birthright to a healthy air quality. In addition there is the added spectre of PM2.5. or tiny particulate matter emanating from Coal fired power plants, these substances alone contributed to 670,000 premature deaths in China. Deaths resulted from lung cancer, coronary heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The study also found that over 70 percent of population was exposed to annual PM2.5 pollution levels higher than 35 micrograms per cubic meter, the benchmark of clean air quality for China. A previous study published in the British medical journal Lancet, stated that in 2010 outdoor air pollution contributed to 1.2 million premature deaths in China. A specialist in the area, Dr.Lockwood, has provided data on the toxicology and physiological effects of small particulate matter. His studies demonstrate how inhaling small particles might cause heart disease, stroke, adverse pregnancy outcomes, IQ loss, and perhaps even diabetes. China is now scrambling to find and answer, difficult today, as the country relies on this fuel for over 70 percent of its energy needs. The poisoning from coal does not stop there. After it is burnt there are the mountains of coal ash. Coal ash is the hazardous waste that remains after coal is burned. Dumped into unlined ponds or mines, the toxins readily leach into drinking water supplies. Piled into surface mounds it gets picked up by the wind and distributed for miles around. The toxins found in Coal ash are, Chromium, Selenium, Lead, Arsenic and Boron. Chromium affects the Brain and Spine. Ingestion of chromium can cause stomach and intestinal ulcers, anemia, and stomach cancer. Frequent inhalation can cause asthma, wheezing, and lung cancer The question that must arise in the public mind must be ‘are our fundamental right to life being compromised by the operation of coal fired power plants?’ The watchdogs of society the ministries under whose purview comes public health and the environment, must answer this question. They must examine the EIA’s and check if there is any disclosure of the facts above when considering granting licenses. In addition to all these woes there will be a negative cultural impact on our evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols, to act imaginatively and creatively. We live on a rock Island and
that rock was turned into the art that bespeaks our culture. Clouds of acid rain from coal-fired power plants will accelerate the rate of erosion. An erosion of our cultural icons truly indicates an erosion of its culture. In a region as sensitive to acid rain as the NCP, why was no mention of or concern shown to address these possibilities, by our own people, beggars belief. Acid rain is formed when oxides of nitrogen and sulfite emanating from Coal fired power stations, combine with moisture in the atmosphere to make nitric and sulfuric acids. The more coal flue gasses, the more concentrated the acidity and any precipitation with a pH level less than 5.6 is considered to be acid rainfall. It will begin to erode our cultural artifacts. The difference between regular precipitation and acid precipitation is the pH level. If , in the face of the obvious the deed is still going to be done, then at least begin monitoring the pH of the rainfall in areas of potential threat. Posted by Thavam
