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The Myth of ‘Beautiful Clean Coal’ – While the U.S. president advocates for the most polluting fossil fuel, a shrinking numbe
The Myth of ‘Beautiful Clean Coal’ – While the U.S. president advocates for the most polluting fossil fuel, a shrinking number of power companies see a future for it.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-29/what-is-trump-s-clean-coal-and-does-it-even-existThick white smoke tinged with a silvery hue blows from the chimney of one of the cleanest coal plants in the world.
Designed by General Electric Co. and run by the German utility Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG, this facility in Karlsruhe on the banks of the Rhine River is at the heart of a debate about whether coal can ever be clean enough to work in a world fighting climate change.
While the unit produces enough electricity for 912,000 homes, it also devours 250 tons of coal per hour, leaving it a substantial emitter of greenhouse gases. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is considering proposals to close Germany’s remaining coal plants by 2030—even the cleanest of them. Manufacturers and utilities are hitting back with more efficient technology that makes the most polluting fossil fuel a little less dirty.
“If you look only at CO2 emissions as a data point, then of course we should stop burning coal,” said Michael Keroulle, chief commercial officer of GE Steam Power, a unit of the Boston-based conglomerate that’s selling coal technology. “But the reality is that countries need access to secure, reliable energy, and renewables can’t always provide that.”
The GE plant near EnBW’s headquarters in Karlsruhe, about 90 miles south of Frankfurt, is one of more than 300 plants worldwide tagged as “clean coal” by the industry. They represent about 12 percent of the power produced by coal around the world, according to data from the S&P Global Market Intelligence World Electric Power Plant Database, Platts.
That’s raised alarm among environmental groups, who point to scientific research suggesting the world must swear off fossil fuels by the middle of the century to prevent the worst impacts of global warming.
“Clean coal is a deliberately misleading term,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, a senior analyst at Greenpeace’s air pollution unit. “In the context of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions, there are two kinds of coal: far too polluting, and far too expensive.”
The moniker “clean coal” was most famously used by U.S. President Donald Trump in his State of the Union address and actually refers to a range of technologies. Some remove impurities from different grades of the fuel to make it burn more quickly, delivering greater power. Others scrub sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain, and nitrous oxide, which harms the Earth’s ozone layer and worsens respiratory conditions such as asthma.
“We have ended the war on American Energy—and we have ended the war on clean coal. We are now an exporter of energy to the world.” —Donald Trump in his State of the Union address, Jan. 30, 2018
Trump made reviving what he calls “beautiful clean coal” a cornerstone of his legislative agenda, vowing to bring back jobs to the ailing industry. His administration has also argued that keeping coal plants provides a cheap and secure energy source that can’t be matched by wind, solar or natural gas.
The most promising systems essentially burn coal at super-high temperatures more quickly than conventional plants, squeezing more energy out of each ton of fuel. Their costs are about 40 percent higher than a regular plant, and their carbon dioxide emissions are 25 percent to 35 percent lower, according to the World Coal Association. On pollution, they can even rival natural gas, the cleanest fossil fuel.
Some 70 percent of the energy is lost when coal is burned in a typical power plant. ‘Clean coal’ plants still lose more than half the energy content.
“The best coal-fired plants are now producing emissions of NOx, SO2 and particulates that are actually lower than gas plants, which is certainly saying something,” said Ian Barnes, principal associate at the IEA’s Clean Coal Center. “For poorer countries like Bangladesh, the availability of affordable power will help to lift millions of people out of poverty.”
For the coal industry, this technology represents a better way to slow the growth in emissions while ensuring greater access to electricity.
The World Coal Association estimates it would cost $31 billion to upgrade 400 gigawatts of coal stations to use the best technologies. That’s a fraction of the $2.4 trillion-a-year investment in clean energy that’s needed to avoid a dangerous warming of the planet, according to a panel of scientists convened by the United Nations.
The most efficient plants operating now, like EnBW’s so-called RDK8 unit in Karlsruhe, are dubbed “ultra-supercritical,” or USC for short.
The name comes from the method of heating water to make steam, operating at a temperature of 600 degrees Celsius (1,100 Fahrenheit)—a third hotter than an oven set to the self-clean cycle. Under intense heat and pressure, water enters a “supercritical” phase where it’s neither a liquid nor a gas but has properties of both. That steam hits the 50-ton power-generation turbine at Karlsruhe with the force of a bullet, rotating it 50 times a second.
Manufacturers including GE, IHI Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. in Japan, Siemens AG in Germany and Doosan Corp. in South Korea are promoting these USC plants as a way to make coal cleaner for places that need cheap energy. They’re vying for orders in Asia, especially China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia, which have fewer alternatives than rich industrial countries.
“If we stop coal-power plants all of a sudden, that will leave the world in disarray,” said Hiroshi Ide, executive officer and vice president of resources, energy and environment at IHI in Tokyo. “The dangerous thing is if customers choose coal power and pick the cheap and inefficient equipment, which emits a lot of carbon dioxide.”
Environmental lobbyists are the most obvious threat to these ambitions. Groups like the Sierra Club, backed by Michael Bloomberg, who owns Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg News, along with the Natural Resources Defense Council have focused attention on the harm done by coal pollution. They note that even the best coal plants contaminate groundwater and put mercury and dust into the air—in addition to their greenhouse-gas footprint.
“There is an honest concern among many in government around the world to modernize their economies and remedy energy poverty,” said David Schlissel, director of resource and planning at the Institute for Economics and Financial Analysis, an environment-focused research group based in Cleveland, Ohio. “For more than a century, burning coal was an accepted and economical way to do this. This is no longer the case.”
The clean-coal industry’s bigger hurdle may be finance, which is drying up quickly in Europe and the U.S., mainly because the projects are so costly and complex.
In the U.S., the only large clean-coal plant is NRG Energy Inc.’s W.A. Parish Unit 8 in Texas, which has a carbon-capture system added to it using Mitsubishi technology. It captures 90 percent of the CO2 in the processed flue gas and also has systems that reduce emissions of sulfur, mercury, nitrogen oxide and particulates. Southern Co. abandoned the clean-coal section of its $7.5 billion Kemper plant in Mississippi after cost overruns and problems building structures that could withstand temperatures above 900 degrees.
At AES Corp., a utility based in Arlington, Virginia, that operates power plants of all kinds in 15 countries, Chief Executive Officer Andres Gluski has been winding down his company’s commitment to coal mainly because of cost. In the past year, he’s sold or closed 4.5 gigawatts of coal plants and built 3 gigawatts of renewable-energy capacity. A gigawatt is about as much as a single nuclear reactor produces.
“You need 20 years just to pay off the debt,” Gluski said. “Where do you think that makes sense? We don’t see any new coal in the U.S. That’s the bottom line.”
Even in Asia, where the IEA expects dozens of new coal plants to be built in the coming years, it’s becoming more difficult to get loans. Development banks are shifting more of their support to green-energy projects, backing the goals of governments to rein in pollution.
“There’s really no such thing as clean coal,” said Woochong Um, director-general of the sustainable development and climate-change department at the Asian Development Bank, which is based in Manila. “In the last five years, we haven’t found the type of coal project we would do.”
The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston is currently having different exhibitions
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Introduction
The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston is currently having different exhibitions ongoing where most are to end in august and September. Among the current exhibitions are paintings, sculptures and photographs with different themes and agendas. One of the current exhibitions are Vincent van Gogh: His Life in Art where the museum showcases various paintings done by him on various occasions including travelling. Vincent Van Gough is a famous Dutch artist who did paintings in the 19th century. He was passionate about his work and in less than two decades, Van Gough had done over 2100 paintings whereby there were over 850 oil paintings mounted on canvas. It is believed that in his last two years of his life he managed to do over fifty paintings. The Van Gough survey opened on March 10th and it is expected to end on July 27th. The painting of interest that the paper is going to discuss is “Vincent van Gogh, In the Café: Agostina Segatori in Le Tambourin, January–March 1887, oil on canvas, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation).” (https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/vincent-van-gogh-his-life-in-art). There are both physical features and deeper meaning that the paining tries to describe.
In the painting, Van Gough used Agostina Segatori as his model. She was a famous model to various artists including Edward Mamet, Jean Baptiste among other artists. The venue of the portrait is said to be her restaurant where exhibitions were made. According to sources her café was a meeting point for various artists including Van Gough. Since her cafe was a meeting point for various artists, she allowed them to display their work in the Café just in case someone decided to purchase them. Agostina accepted paintings and other forms of art as payment for meals and drinks in case the artists went short of money. Van Gough was not an exception.
Physical Features of the Painting
The painting shows a woman at a café seated holding a cigarette with his arms on the table. The woman appears to be a middle age adult in her thirty’s. There is a glass of beer on a saucer and there is one empty saucer on the table. The woman is wearing a brown coat, one cannot clearly tell whether she is wearing a dress or a skirt but from the look of things it appears to be dark green in color. On the far right we can see two table chairs next to the wall. The woman is seated on a round table and there are three round traditional seats of the time of around mid-19th century. On one of the seats there is what appears to be a broom, (one cannot tell exactly what it is). On the wall just next to where the lady is seated there is what appears to be some pictures on the wall (https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/vincent-van-gogh-his-life-in-art).
According to MFAH museum the painting that is on exhibition has dimensions of 55.5 cm x 47 cm (https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/vincent-van-gogh-his-life-in-art). It is an oil on canvas type of painting. An oil painting is paint made up of ground up pigments suspended in a binding medium of oil. The painting has most of the parts in dull colors whereby the wall has different shades of green, grey and blue. Red and white is scarce on the wall. The lady’s face has a bright color and she has a red hair on. We cannot tell whether this is the exact color or Van Gough used it so as to enhance the theme or make the hair visible.
History of the Painting
It is believed that Van Gough drew the painting of the lady who goes by the name Agostina Segatori while in the café owned by the woman. The painting was drawn in January at Le Tambourin café, but the complete work was in March, thus we can say he took three months to complete her painting. Van Gough had requested the Agostina to allow him display his paintings in her café then later requested her to pause for him to draw. Agostina is believed to have had an affair with Van Gough back in 1880s at the time when she was running the Le Tambourin restaurant. Van Gough in that month had an exhibition in the café where he was going to sell his Japanese collection. At the background of the painting we can see Japanese prints thus it is believed that he did the painting during that time.
The restaurant was a meeting point for various Pakistan artists thus Van Gough decided to do an exhibition of his paintings in the café. We happen to understand that the artists exchanged paintings and bus tickets for his meals. During the exhibition, less of his paintings were bought and in July the same year, he termed the project as a failure. The above painting of interest is one of the paintings among the two paintings of Agostina Segatori drawn by Van Gough during his exhibition (Leinbach, pg. 19). One can say it was in exchange of the favor granted by the lady for him to do his business in the restaurant.
As for now we expect the oil painting to be dry since they take approximately sixty years for the pigments to completely dry. The painting is 132 years old. Despite the age, the painting looks clear enough to display the theme intended by Van Gough which will be discussed later in the paper.
Rhetorical Analysis of the Painting by Van Gough.
Van Gough did his best to attract the audience to view the image. The author painted this picture in a manner that emphasizes focus on the woman who happens to be drinking and smoking at the same time. Also, the painting of Agostina’s body seems to be clear compare to all the other objects in the room. This was to emphasize that he painting was all about her and nothing else. Overall, the shot of this image is strategic, and it plays on the audience’s belief that this particular location is scenic; hence a majority of the people would love to visit the museum and view it physically after seeing it on the website. The use of organization of information in this picture contributes to pathos as this image sparks interest and desire among the audience to visit this MFAH (Leinbach, pg. 23). Also, the way in which this picture was painted adds to ethos as it proves that the author not only takes paints images, but he is also strategic about the angles and paints to use in order to display the lighting and other features at the moment he did paint. Therefore, this picture is persuasive as sparks the audience’s interest.
It is clear that Van Gough painted Agostina while he was so close to her. This is so because, her image is larger compared to other objects and due to the closeness =, some features such as legs and the floor where she is being not seen. We can see the floor far away where the chairs are. This proves that the author wanted to make the woman appear larger, thus dominant and emphasize it is all about her and not the restaurant nor the Japanese prints on the walls.
Despite the painting concentrating mainly on Agostina, the artists failed to include the fact that there could be people in the restaurant. At least he could have some sketches of one or two people to show that it is a café where the exhibitions were done. We can see the lady with a beer on the table, perhaps there is somebody who did serve her (Meissner, pg. 278). The restaurant does not look like a busy one since there are some basic features like the ones mentioned above which are excluded.
Generally, Van Gough did a very quality painting that highlighted his character as an impressionist. He gave an impression about Agostina as a sad person. We get to see the theme of loneliness in the whole painting. Everything is dull that is why he uses dull colors and we can tell that it is at night when the lady was painted (Sabbeth, pg. 32). The dull colors reduce the lighting in the room where the art was developed. If he would have used dull colors and a sad picture of Agostina, then there would be a lot of irony in the painting. Bright colors such as white, luminous green, red sky blue and so on are used to lighten up the mood of the audience and the models in the piece of art. Black, dark grey, jungle green and similar darker shades are used to create a dull mood for both the audience and the art itself. Thus he utilized these feature to create mood.
Interpretation of the painting
Van Gough paints a white lady who is decently dressed. She is a coat and a long dress that hides her legs and most part of her arms. However, we see a lonely lady who is drinking alone. When one is drinking it is a culture that he or she must have a company (Sabbeth, pg. 31). There are two empty seats around her. Perhaps it was Agostina’s culture to be a loner. On the upper note, maybe he painted the image adhering to the model alone so that his theme and impressions of the painting would come out clearly. Maybe if he included all the features in the restaurant, he would have a confusing image.
In the painting we see a lady who seems sad. Van Gough was keen enough to pain the eyes and the whole face with correct contours which brought out the sad face of Agostina. To enhance the fact that she might be going through a moment of sadness, Van Gough includes in the painting a cigarette, beer and two saucepans. From the look of things, it is evident that Agostina is on her second beer because of the one empty saucepan (Meissner, pg. 278). She cannot be smoking and drinking at the same time, that is why one is justified to judge the sad face.
Also in the painting, the Agostina is properly dressed implying in the 19th century when the painting was drawn people had begun to dress well and civilization was at peak. Clothing businesses are depicted in the picture to have grown and coffee selling business was progressing well in the Turkish coffee house because of the many people in the painting. It shows an era where beer was a common thing which was taken by the ladies. The era is that of civilization since currently, beer is taken is similar glasses and there exists sauce pans in the 21st century.
The painting is used to showcase the culture of Italian women during the 1880s. We can see from Agostina that they were decently dressed that is they covered most parts of their bodies. Agostina is having a fashionable outfit that existed during those days. We see her parasol lying on the stool and her hat is held up in position with pins, indeed she was an outgoing woman who would dress up to give a good image to his clients in the Cafe she managed. However, drinking was not an exception to them, just like the 20th and 21st century, women went drinking at night like the men did (Leinbach, pg. 22). We are told that the restaurant is called Tambourine perhaps the owner decides to embrace the name by using tambourine tops on chairs and tables. This is clearly evident from the environment at which Agostina is seated. We can conclude that this was a cultural restaurant that is why most of the furniture were from a specific Italian culture.
Conclusion
Through this image, various individuals in his audiences can conclude diverse opinions on this image; thus their conclusions are purely based on their views, and the ideas they think the author is trying to portray. The painting by Van Gough is well painted and at the museum am sure everyone would want to view it. More so, it is in a historical setting of 1880s. We all want to get a glimpse of what used to happen in the past especially how people spent their leisure and for this case, Van Gough gives us a glimpse of it. The passion and power of painting in his art is familiar to all art lovers not to forget his love for women as his models in his paintings. Besides Agostina, we have other women like the portrait of a woman in a straw hat.
Work of art of Interest
Vincent van Gogh, In the Café: Agostina Segatori in Le Tambourin, January–March 1887, oil on canvas, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Works Cited
https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/vincent-van-gogh-his-life-in-artLeinbach, Cade. “10 Pieces for Vincent: A Suite for Mixed Chamber Ensemble.” (2018).
Meissner, W, W. “Love and Sexuality in the Life and Art of Vincent van Gogh.” Annual of Psychoanalysis 26 (1999): 269-294.
Sabbeth, Carol. Van Gogh and the Post-Impressionists for Kids: Their Lives and Ideas, 21 Activities. Chicago Review Press, 2011.
The Generation Disparity
The Generation Disparity.
The young adolescents had a different behavior as compared to that of the young ones in the recent years. In the former years of the 19th and 20th century, the young men were quiet hardworking and were very interested in learning basic functions and important roles such as being independent from their fathers They were always eager and to learn more as well as to have important survival skills for life being imparted on them. This can be contrasted by the behavior of the young males in the recent ages since they have lost the need and desire to live a life whereby they can ensure that they still hole the ‘protective’ roles in the family.
The women in the 20th century have also been brought out as loving beauty but also being prone to fall into relationships that may end up being harmful to them in the long run. In the story of “A good man is hard to find”, it can be seen that the young male seems to be rebellious and is not interested in following any form of instructions that he is given by the grandmother. It also seems that the mother is not in a position to influence any of the decisions that the male will make hence they tend to keep themselves interested in their own things such as engaging themselves in the pleasure of reading comic books. The author of “A Good Man is hard to Find seems to have grown up in the Roman Catholic Faith hence had her thoughts based on the Christian doctrine. Her writings were also guided by the deep Faith that she had in the Christian religion. Christianity upholds a rule that ensures that people have respect for one another. The Story of “A Rose for Emily’ brings out the fact that young males had issues with their relationships as it was seen of Homer Barron whom Emily had totally fallen in love with but he did not display his interest in her. He seemed to get involved in other kinds of joys such as relationships with other men as well as spending his nights drinking outside with the same men. The author for this story served in the military but had a high interest in writing articles that would prove to be very creative and interesting to the reader.
In the story of ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ the protagonist is the grandmother who seems to want to get attention from her extended family. She is also trying to influence the family to see the importance of her home in Tennessee so as to be able to bring back the memories but the family displays no form of interest at all and they seem to want to do their own things. Her family did not seem to care about her and even when she claimed that she had suffered injuries from the accident, it seemed that everyone just minded their own business as if she held no importance to them. In the second story of ‘A Rose for Emily’, the author brings out Emily as the protagonist. She is seen as a strong and mean character that would not have compassion for others and seemed quite proud. However, despite this strong characteristic, she was weakened by the love towards a man who at the end of it all broke her heart and made her to make some choices that were not quite for her own good.
In ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’, the grandmother has an antagonist who is the son that is not interested in anything that she said. The mother to the boy also seemed to have the same attitude towards the old woman. In ‘A Rose for Emily,’ Homer Barron comes out as the antagonistic character since he seems to be much different from Emily. He seemed to love and enjoy life and he lived in a manner in which he deemed best for him as well as for his desires.
In ‘A Rose for Emily’, the tax collectors and the other crowds that are spoken of are quite important since they bring out the true character of Emily and how she thought of herself to be highly placed as compared to the other people. The pharmacists is also brought in to bring out the character of the people in the society who do not care about others and may indirectly contribute to the harm that others end up facing in their day to day lives.
The ‘It is Hard to Find a Good Man’ story takes place in a rural setting. This is indicated by the description of the roads which are said to be rugged and dusty. The way in which the women are dressed up also means that they were in a more traditional setting. The hunting activities also bring out the same. The story also brings out the aspect of the woods whereby there is a part that indicates that Bobby Lee got out of the woods and stood at the ditch as he watched the grandmother who lay in a pool of blood. The journey that they took initially also seemed to be taking quite a long time hence it means that they would travel through roads to the rural areas in the state or even a different one. The story takes place in the 19the century. The story about Emily takes place in a more advanced setting maybe in the 20th century because of the description that exists such as the dress code, way of living and the description of their houses as well. The decorations of the house also bring out the tie period of the setting of this story in particular. It is said that the house was decorated with spires as well as cupolas that filled the balcony. The sue of some words such as the negro brings out the fact that the story happened in the earlier years since then the use of the word Negro was still highly acceptable by the society and widely used as well. The settings of the stories also play a big role in compelling the protagonists to go into action since it allows them to be able to express themselves according to the norms that have been accepted by the society in general. The different characters choose to solve their conflicts in different ways. Some choose to try and use some form of dialogue so as to get the important points across while some seems to give up and choose to end their lives so as to run away from the conflict which is impending.
The theme of the ‘It’s Hard to find a good man story, brings out the idea that society has changed over time and that the old notion that older and mature people had the power to make decisions for the younger generation has been eroded. The grandmother is quite unnoticed and it seems like her family do not care whether she dies or lives. According to their words, there would be no difference whether the woman lives or dies. The grandmother called Bailey boy out of concern when she heard gunshots fill the air. The religious nature of the older generations is brought across especially when the grandmother becomes disturbed by the words of the Misfit and suggests that the people should all start to pray instead. She also emphasized the word pray so much showing how important that move was to her. The story also brings about the lack of morals that the younger generations had. The Misfit claims that he had been married twice, worked as an undertaker and even having seen a man being burnt alive. The Misfit continued to say that he found out that crime did not matter and that anyone can do the unacceptable actions to others such as murder or other destructive activities since in the long run, the same might also happen to anyone whether innocent or guilty or whether they are deserving or not. He speaks in a manner that depicts that he really does not have empathy and regret for these actions. To him all these events seemed quite normal. This brings out the pessimistic attitude of the people especially those who seemed to have been undergoing difficult times during their normal lives. The theme of a rose for Emily is such that relationships are known to have a strong effect on people no matter how strong they appear to be. This is evidenced by the fact that Emily got in a position whereby she could not contain herself and was even forced to lock herself for years in her own house. Both stories bring out the fact that there has been a decline in the morality of the society since people seem to accept vices into their lives and chose to live a life that does not observe proper rules and acceptable behavior.
References.
Faulkner, William (1897-1962) A Rose for Emily.
O’Connor, Flannery (1925-1964) A Good Man is hard to Find.