Go Green!: Coal and Global Warming

We all know that global warming is a serious problem, but we don't all agree on the solutions. Some solutions are proven - like wind and solar energy. Others are more like pipe dreams or schemes that can actually increase global warming. That's the case with an idea called carbon capture and storage, which theoretically would capture carbon dioxide emitted from coal power plants and store it underground.

Carbon capture and storage is unproven, unlike renewable energy alternatives. In fact, the coal industry has latched onto the idea as an excuse to continue polluting and building new power plants that will add to, rather than solve, the global warming crisis. The industry is working hard on Capitol Hill to secure billions of dollars in subsidies for this dangerous technology. Instead, lawmakers should support technologies like wind and solar that can begin to reduce global warming pollution today, not on false hopes that may never deliver.

TAKE ACTION -- Tell Congress: Pull the plug on false solutions and invest in real alternatives now.

The truth behind carbon capture and storage is that even if it worked, the technology wouldn't be available until 2030 - despite calls from scientists worldwide that global warming must be addressed within the next 10 years if we hope to minimize its impacts.

That's why Greenpeace activists showed up today at a government -sponsored conference on Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technology in Pennsylvania with 1,200 black balloons carrying the message, "Coal is Dirty." We also released a new report called "False Hope: Why Carbon Capture and Storage Won't Save the Climate," calling on the government to invest in proven technologies like wind and solar and efficiency that will begin to reduce global warming pollution today.

The time to act is now, and the technologies to stop global warming already exist. The coal industry should go the way of the dinosaur - the era of renewable energy has arrived.

Sincerely,