We need renewable energy, not more coal

The Longview coal dock hearing made clear the need to very quickly switch to renewable energy with the many good paying jobs it creates. Exporting coal from Longview would only create 15 additional jobs and make our sixth great mass extinction of life on earth due to human caused fossil fuel global warming worse.

We see the consequences of this with dying species, drought, floods, extreme heat every day. In the Permian mass extinction 252 million years ago volcanoes in what is now Russia released carbon pollution into the atmosphere resulting in the death of about 95 percent of life on earth.

It took 10 million years for life on earth to recover. Not only will much of life on earth disappear from our current mass extinction but sea level rise will destroy coastal cities around the world which is home to 600 million people.

We must very quickly act now to switch to clean renewable energy, leave global warming fossil fuels in the ground and create the many good paying renewable energy jobs needed in Washington state.

This story was originally published June 3, 2016 at 8:26 AM with the headline "We need renewable energy, not more coal."