Scientists Finger Coal as Main Global Warming Culprit

At the American Geophysical Union union meeting in San Francisco, Kenneth Caldeira of Stanford University presented new calculations that even if humanity zeroed out its use of oil, emissions from coal burning would rapidly push global warming to dangerous levels.

This echoes the findings of a new Greenpeace report, the Energy R[e]volution.  This projection of a clean energy future, based on reducing carbon emissions very rapidly, was cowritten with the European Renewable Energy Council. 

The analysis  draws a bead on coal fired electricity, driving coal virtually out of the picture by mid-century with a combination of energy efficiency and renewables.  Oh and we take nuclear out too. The pressure isn't off of oil, but if we don't solve coal, its game over.

In the chart above, the first bar on each year is the International Energy Agency's projection, the second is our, more hopeful, Energy R[e]volution scenario.  Instead of doubling global greenhouse gas emissions, we cut them in half.  And this is the least we can do, with available off-the-shelf technology and existing governmental incentives.  Imagine what is possible if we really push.