{"id":438481,"date":"2026-04-09T12:58:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=438481"},"modified":"2026-04-09T12:58:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:58:29","slug":"coal-the-fuel-we-ignore-but-cannot-replace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=438481","title":{"rendered":"Coal, The Fuel We Ignore But Cannot Replace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Lars Schernikau: Energy Economist, Commodity Trader, Author (recent book \u201c<\/em>The Unpopular Truth\u2026 about Electricity and the Future of Energy<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u201d<\/em><\/strong>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Details including the full Blog on coal \u201cCoal keeps the lights on\u2026 are we experiencing a \u201cnew\u201d renaissance of coal?\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0are available at\u00a0<\/em>www.unpopular-truth.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years now, coal has been treated like a relic\u2026 a dirty word, something we were told would quietly disappear during the \u201cenergy transition\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But yet, here we are\u2026 global coal consumption has definitely not declined, quite the contrary, it has only\u00a0grown from roughly 6 billion tons in 2008 (when I wrote my first book on coal \u201cThe Renaissance of Steam Coal\u201d) to around 9 billion tons today<\/strong>. Not to mention the seaborne trade which almost doubled! So the question is not whether coal is disappearing as we were told, it\u2019s whether we misunderstood this useful black rock in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our material world runs on something we are avoiding\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We like to think we live in a \u201cclean\u201d digital world with all our devices, apps, AI and cloud storage, but our physical world has not gone anywhere and should also be considered in this equation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steel, cement, metals, fertilizers\u2026.so many elements needed to actually build our modern lives which still heavily depends, directly or indirectly, on coal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you know that roughly\u00a0one-third of all coal is used not for electricity, but for industry?\u00a0<\/strong>In fact, when you include electricity used for industrial purposes, more than half of all coal globally is consumed by industries keeping our daily amenities running :<\/p>\n\n\n\n