February 20, 2008 ·China has beaten the U.S. in getting a coal-to-liquid fuel plant built, thus taking the trophy for “most ingenious and efficient method of hastening global warming”. The resulting fuel could power all manner of vehicles — a technology developed in Nazi Germany during WWII.
It also happens to be one of the dirtiest, most environmentally destructive methods of producing energy yet. Coal-to-liquids essentially doubles CO2 emissions, and this at a time when we desperately need to reduce them. And, like nuclear plants, the coal-to-liquids process consumes vast amounts of water.
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