Good, coal is the dirtiest source of energy we have. To suggest that is the way we should go for our energy needs is to be frank, retarded.
Source? Link? I want facts, not opinions.
Source to what? That coal is a ludicrously dirty fuel source? About 1 second on google will yield more results than you can reasonably shake a stick at, but ok...
CDIAC Report --
http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/emis_mon/stateemis/emis_state.html (Brief summary:
These energy consumption data were multiplied by their respective carbon dioxide emission factors, which are called carbon content coefficients by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These factors quantify the mass of oxidized carbon per unit of energy released from a fuel. In the U.S.A., they are typically expressed in units of teragrams of carbon (Tg-C = 1012 grams of carbon) per quadrillion British thermal units (quadrillion Btu = 1015 Btu, or "quad"), and are highest for coal and lowest for natural gas
More Info:
National Resource Defense Council
http://www.nrdc.org/energy/coalnotclean.aspUnion of Concerned Scientists
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/coalvswind/c02c.html emissions information (CO2, SO2, Smog contributants, Mercury, Arsenic, Cadmium)
Scientific American Article
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste Residents near coal plants are exposed to more radioactive emission than those by nuclear plants.
Peer review papers on health impacts of coal mining
http://crmw.net/resources/health-impacts.phpMIT interdisciplinary study on future of coal
http://web.mit.edu/coal/ Study finds coal impossible to use going forward to meet increasing energy demands due to dirty nature without CCS technology.
Whitepaper analyzing CCS
http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/01/carbon_seq/p4.pdf (Highlight, energy losses of ~25%, plus other costs for sequestration makes this unattractive at best, though it does reduce emissions substantially).
etc.
In the future feel free to do your own googling. There is no bone of contention as to the effects of coal, so this is not a point that needs to be argued and sourced, and was mostly a waste of time.
What to be done in place of coal, that is the meat for a real discussion.