Powerfully dirty stuff Bloomberg/Getty
Coal is a disaster in environmental terms, from the destruction caused by mining it to the planet-warming carbon dioxide emitted when it is burned. Now it turns out even just transporting the stuff around is having a significant climate impact.
Carbon emissions from transporting coal by rail to power stations are around three times greater than previous estimates, according to a study by John Sherwood of Clemson University, South Carolina and colleagues. In the worst cases, an extraordinary 35 per cent of overall CO2 emissions from coal use came from rail transport.
Sherwood’s team started…
