Jan Stump, West Des Moines

Letter to the Editor

I'm starting to read more articles about the excitement of burning coal again. However, do people really know what they are going to get?

My son, daughter-in-law and two young granddaughters have lived in Shenyang, China, for the last two and a half years. The parents work for the U.S. State Department in the U.S. Consulate in Shenyang. My husband and I visited them last October as the winter was coming in. The city-wide coal burning furnaces were heating up. Some days from their apartment hallway, we could see three tall smokestacks from the city coal-burning power plants. Some days the pollution from these coal-burning plants was so bad that we could only see two stacks, and then barely one.

Last week on Skype we talked to Sarah, age 8, who was learning to knit. I asked if she were knitting a scarf. "No," she said, "I'm knitting a draft stopper to put on the floor in front of our door to keep the pollution from coming into our apartment!"

And people think using more coal is a good idea? I realize Shenyang is a very large city, but no one in Des Moines, the U.S., or in the world should have to be exposed to that kind of air pollution. There are many ways to heat buildings and the cleanest air solutions should be a priority.

— Jan Stump, West Des Moines