Why are we still using coal?

[Ryantology]

'Nuff said.

One issue is that it takes a stupendous amount of oil to make solar panels.

The more we make, the less need we have for petroleum-fired power plants.

Also, once the technology matures and decreases in price (which it has done and will only continue to do), then we'll have cars like this (but much better) and we won't need to waste as much petroleum on transportation.

The Hunger Games are set way into the future, and they still mine coal then. So we'll obviously be needing coal for a long time.

Don't trust sci-fi writers to use all of their imaginations. The original Star Trek was set three hundred years in the future, but the computers they used on board the Enterprise look prehistoric compared to what we have today, much less what we'll actually have the 23rd century, because they were essentially just 1960s-era computers in design and function. Or, how about those flip-open handheld communicators that look adorably quaint compared to cell phones from 15 years ago.



Solar is the future, and it's not that far away. If we use coal at all, it would be as either a backup or used in places where solar is not feasible all the time.