I find myself agreeing with much of the sentiment of Viv Forbes (letters 5/4) regarding celebrating coal. The electrification of Australia and the rest of the world has assisted in the large advances in technology, medicine, mechanisation that we have since the start of the industrial revolution. This electrification, with the help of coal, has saved thousand or maybe millions of lives around the world.
However the mining and burning of coal as a power source is not without problems. Thousands die yearly as a result of coal from coal dust, mining operations, industrial accidents, and in the future potentially from climate change.
The stone age did not end when we ran out of stones. It ended because of technological change. At some stage in the future, the coal age will end. We have seen many alternative energy sources like nuclear, hydro electricity, gas and more recently wind and solar. Human innovation and technological change will no doubt invent more ways to generate electricity and the power choices of the future. I hope that in a few hundred years time, our descendents will look back at the coal age and recognise the enormous value that coal gave to humanity.
When I have turned the lights off for Earth Hour, like Viv Forbes, I have reflected on the benefits that we gain from electricity and the changes that it has made to our world. I also take the opportunity to reflect on the fragility of our environment.
Peter Alley
Labor Spokesperson for Lyne
