6 ms·

Poland what the uck are you doing? Literally black spot on EU map. Stop burning that much coal. Fix it ASAP.

timmietwo 10y ago
Been there many times. Old condos, homes have coal burning furnaces. People have no money to replace them despite aid from EU to convert to gas. Some people throw everything into the furnace to burn for heat. It's not pleasant to walk outside and breath air fowled by burning plastic bottles.
- cesis 10y ago
  This is for electricity generation, so residential coal is excluded.
- ch4ck 10y ago
  Actually we burn "renewable" wood here and decrease catastrophic effects of global warming caused by more developed economies.
kornakiewicz 10y ago
I'm Polish (currently living in Spain). And yes, a lot of people in rural and small cities areas are using coal to heat houses, as well as wood and sometimes garbage which is the worst. What's more, our main electricity source is coal power plants - because of traditionally strong miners' lobby from Silesia area. Actually, no government had enough courage to make a shift into more cleaner power sources.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Tade0 10y ago
Problem is Poland isn't really burning that much coal. If you look at the emmisions per capita: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC?name_desc=false http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC?name_desc... Germany, which has a considerably cleaner grid, has still higher CO2 emissions per capita and has a greater population (80mln vs 38mln in Poland). That being said the polish grid is long due for a massive overhaul, but - especially now - there's no political will to do it even though over 77% of the population would welcome switching to cleaner sources of electricity. I personally count on renewables becoming cost-efficient soon - which could be a major driver for change.
skocznymroczny 10y ago
We have coal, so we use it, like other countries did before. Wind/solar farms don't work well here because of the weather and are expensive. Nuclear plants would require foreign technology which is very costly, and so far nuclear plants here are just a dream, a way to drain the public funds into the pockets of "nuclear plant construction" committee, which doesn't do anything useful (it doesn't help that the public opinion is against nuclear energy because of the Chernobyl, even though all of our neighbours have nuclear plants anyway).
- finchisko 10y ago
  Don't be mad at me, but basically what are you saying is: "Screw you all, screw the planet, flood after us...". You should really not use argument: "you did it, so we will also do it", because when "we" did it, there was probably no other way. And now is. It's 2016, you can't burn coal in rate like it was 15th century. It won't help us transition to clean energy anyhow.
  - krzyk 10y ago
    You have a point, but you have to also consider the fact that it is hypocritical to say that we are "Screwing the planet". If others were screwing it to build their economy, other countries also should have that ability. Countries that have more money can afford other forms of energy, but coal is abundant in Poland and it would be foolish not to use it. For solar power, Poland doesn't have good geographical position, similar with wind (it is only in the northern part, while the majority of population is in the south). And hydro is not that environment friendly, but we have those in the south, but it is hard to make more because there is a limit on the amount of water and Poland has less of it than e.g. Egypt. The only other option is nuclear, but as others have written it is not popular in the public.
    - renaudg 10y ago
      > If others were screwing it to build their economy, other countries also should have that ability Because of course building one's economy matters more than screwing the planet we all live on ? What Poland is doing (as others did before) is very understandable, but it doesn't mean it's acceptable.

Been there many times. Old condos, homes have coal burning furnaces. People have no money to replace them despite aid from EU to convert to gas. Some people throw everything into the furnace to burn for heat. It's not pleasant to walk outside and breath air fowled by burning plastic bottles.

cesis 10y ago
This is for electricity generation, so residential coal is excluded.
ch4ck 10y ago
Actually we burn "renewable" wood here and decrease catastrophic effects of global warming caused by more developed economies.

kornakiewicz 10y ago

I'm Polish (currently living in Spain). And yes, a lot of people in rural and small cities areas are using coal to heat houses, as well as wood and sometimes garbage which is the worst. What's more, our main electricity source is coal power plants - because of traditionally strong miners' lobby from Silesia area. Actually, no government had enough courage to make a shift into more cleaner power sources.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

Tade0 10y ago

Problem is Poland isn't really burning that much coal. If you look at the emmisions per capita: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC?name_desc=false http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC?name_desc... Germany, which has a considerably cleaner grid, has still higher CO2 emissions per capita and has a greater population (80mln vs 38mln in Poland). That being said the polish grid is long due for a massive overhaul, but - especially now - there's no political will to do it even though over 77% of the population would welcome switching to cleaner sources of electricity. I personally count on renewables becoming cost-efficient soon - which could be a major driver for change.

skocznymroczny 10y ago

We have coal, so we use it, like other countries did before. Wind/solar farms don't work well here because of the weather and are expensive. Nuclear plants would require foreign technology which is very costly, and so far nuclear plants here are just a dream, a way to drain the public funds into the pockets of "nuclear plant construction" committee, which doesn't do anything useful (it doesn't help that the public opinion is against nuclear energy because of the Chernobyl, even though all of our neighbours have nuclear plants anyway).

finchisko 10y ago
Don't be mad at me, but basically what are you saying is: "Screw you all, screw the planet, flood after us...". You should really not use argument: "you did it, so we will also do it", because when "we" did it, there was probably no other way. And now is. It's 2016, you can't burn coal in rate like it was 15th century. It won't help us transition to clean energy anyhow.
- krzyk 10y ago
  You have a point, but you have to also consider the fact that it is hypocritical to say that we are "Screwing the planet". If others were screwing it to build their economy, other countries also should have that ability. Countries that have more money can afford other forms of energy, but coal is abundant in Poland and it would be foolish not to use it. For solar power, Poland doesn't have good geographical position, similar with wind (it is only in the northern part, while the majority of population is in the south). And hydro is not that environment friendly, but we have those in the south, but it is hard to make more because there is a limit on the amount of water and Poland has less of it than e.g. Egypt. The only other option is nuclear, but as others have written it is not popular in the public.
  - renaudg 10y ago
    > If others were screwing it to build their economy, other countries also should have that ability Because of course building one's economy matters more than screwing the planet we all live on ? What Poland is doing (as others did before) is very understandable, but it doesn't mean it's acceptable.