I wrote:
> Especially when you take into account the 20,000 people year who die from > coal smoke . . . > 20,000 people in the U.S. that is. In China roughly 1.5 million people die per year from coal smoke. The cost of all these deaths is not included in the total cost of energy because electric power companies do not pay the victims' families anything. If you include the cost of these deaths, that would make coal, oil and even gas much more expensive. This is a hidden cost. Even if you discount the possible cost of global warming, it would still save a tremendous amount of money to transition to alternative energy. It would also save millions of lives. There is no need to invoke global warming as a reason to do this. Given the irrational opposition to global warming research, it is probably bad public relations to invoke it. The industry websites for wind energy do not emphasize global warming. They talk about reduced pollution, reduced dependence on foreign energy sources, increased employment, and other things most people agree on. See: http://www.awea.org/ - Jed
