Years of organized opposition and education efforts are finally proving successful in pushing coal-fired power generation out of the US and Europe.
But the coal industry is not dying. It’s just moving to developing countries where the demand for energy is currently louder than the opposition of community and environmental groups.
While plans for 150 new coal plants have been abandoned in the US since 2004, India approved a coal plant every other day in 2010 alone -173 coal projects. The demand for coal-fired power in China is even larger.
Much of that coal is exported from Australia and Indonesia, which have established mining industries. But new mines also are being developed in countries like Mozambique and Mongolia that have little use for the coal themselves. And with rural power plants supplying electricity to urban centers, small communities are being destroyed for the sake of supplying energy to metropolitan areas.
But the smaller communities are beginning to organize, "calling for a more sustainable model of energy development that prioritizes access to energy services for all, environmental sustainability, and human health," according to a Grist article.
The article details what advocates are doing in a dozen far flung locations such as Sabah, Malaysia; Andhra Pradesh, India; Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, Thailand; Columbia and the Philippines.
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