And Happy Xmas to Big Coal as Well..

And its Happy Xmas to Big Coal too. Britain plans to build eight new coal power stations as part of the country’s efforts to address its looming energy crisis.

Although it is an early Christmas present to Big Coal, it will completely undermine the Bali agreement on climate change and discredit Britain’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.

Now James Hansen, the director of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, is urging British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown to block plans to build the power stations.

“You have the potential to influence the future of the planet”, writes Hansen. “If we continue to build coal-fired power plants without carbon capture, we will lock in future climate disasters associated with passing climate tipping points.”

“If Great Britain and Germany halted construction of coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester the CO2, it could be a tipping point for the world. There is still time to find that tipping point, but just barely.”

“Coal and unconventional fossil fuels such as tar shale contain enough carbon to produce a vastly different planet than the one on which civilisation developed …”

Notice the reference to oil shales….