Doctors say wind energy and solar power should replace coal

The current Liberal government has said it will shut coal plants in Ontario, which has a population of more than 13 million people, by 2014.

The Toronto Star noted the opposition Conservatives have been highly critical of the Green Energy Act, which seeks to replace coal with renewables energy and conservation.

Niagara This Week said the ads — which carry the headline “Doctors and Nurses Support Green Energy” — remind readers that the province’s coal plants caused more than 150,000 illnesses and more than 300 deaths last year alone.

“Ontario doctors, nurses and other health professionals support energy conservation combined with wind turbines and solar power, to help us move away from coal,” the ads say.

Campaign spokesman Gideon Forman, who is also executive director of CAPE, said nurses and doctors are concerned of the possibility that a new government would not honour the promise to phase out coal-fired electricity plants.

“All the research we’ve done shows that coal has to go,” Forman was quoted as saying.

As Ontario has been developing its wind farm resources, critics have complained that wind turbines can cause health problems to people living near wind farm plants.

In November, Forman wrote that while health concerns are raised by the anti-wind-power lobby, coal plants in Ontario are the largest source of greenhouse gases in the province.

“In the midst of this ruckus,” Forman wrote, “there’s an often-missed and very important distinction to be made: coal plants are inherently harmful while wind turbines are not.”

By Chris Rose,  blog.ewea.org/