What can I do to help the problem?

Something that is simple but is often overlooked is using less electricity. If everyone in America used less electricity, less coal would be needed to produce electricity. This doesn’t mean that you can never use electricity. If people turned the lights off when a room was unoccupied, this would drastically reduce the amount of electricity that was used. Other simple things like energy efficient fixtures would also decrease the amount of electricity that we need.

Why are alternative energy sources so expensive?

Alternative energy hasn’t been used much because this technology is fairly new. New technology is usually expensive for a while after it is produced. As these technologies are used more, the cost to use them will decrease. This should cause an even more widespread use of alternative energy.

Why aren’t people worried about this problem?

I think that many people are unaware of the problems that could arise from the depletion of coal. There haven’t been too many warnings published to inform people of this problem. I think that more forms of risk communication need to be published in order to inform the public. This problem could arise much sooner than we think, so something needs to be done before its too late. Informing the public of this problem could help to save our coal resources.