In China, which depends for more than 80% of its electricity on coal-fired power stations, pollution is so serious that the World Health Organisation estimates that it kills upwards of 650,000 Chinese people per year.

Wind energy avoids the numerous issues associated with the discovery and exploitation of fossil fuels. Deaths from mining, the massive destruction of strip mining and ‘hill-top removal’ and fuel spills are just some of the consequences of dependence on recovering raw materials for electricity generation from under the ground. 

According to the Canadian government’s environment department, air pollution causes an estimated 5,000 premature deaths in Canada per year. Children and elderly people face the greatest risk. Nearly 12% of Canada’s smog is the result of burning fossil fuels to produce electricity.

The American Bird Conservancy estimates that mining operations in the states of West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia will leave a massive and permanent impact on mature forest birds, including the loss of tens of thousands of breeding Cerulean Warblers.

Shortage of supplies of natural gas in the US has resulted in a growing demand for coal-bed methane extraction of gas. This is covering the country’s western prairie with drilling wells, noisy compressor stations and wastewater pits, all of which threatens wildlife habitats.

The European Union-funded research study ‘ExternE’  has examined in detail the economic consequences for both the environment and human health of the different ways in which electricity is produced in the EU, and found that all renewable energy sources have environmental and social benefits compared to conventional energy sources such as coal, gas, oil and nuclear. These benefits can be translated into costs for society. The EU study estimated the external cost of gas fired power generation at around 1.1-3.0 €cents/kWh and that for coal at as much as 3.5-7.7 €cents/kWh, compared to just 0.05-0.25 €cents/kWh for wind.The study concluded that the cost of producing electricity from coal or oil would double, and from gas increase by 30%, if their external costs were taken into account.