Just the particle pollution from coal-fired power plants kills 13,000 Americans each year through heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer, birth defects & premature death, according to the American Lung Association. That number doesn’t even consider threats from other pollutants like arsenic & mercury or the dangers of coal mining.
And carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants is a prime driver of global warming, which is fueling more climate-connected extreme weather events that have helped turn 2011 into the Year of the Natural Disaster.
All that leads Tom Toles to ask in today’s Washington Post: Cigarettes come with warning labels – why not coal-fired power plants?
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