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26,Engsub Archives610American lives.

That's the estimated number of people spared an early death in the Lower 48 states between 2005 and 2016 because 138 pollution-spewing coal plants were shut down, according to new research published Monday in the journal Nature. These coal plants were largely replaced with natural gas plants, which emit significantly fewer toxins and create far less heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions than coal — the dirtiest of fossil fuels.

Yet coal still produces about a quarter of the nation’s electricity, despite the deadly impacts for people living near coal plants.

“There really is no rational reason why we should be burning coal anymore,” said Joshua Pearce, a professor of materials science and engineering at Michigan Technological University, noting that renewable energy provides people with more, and higher-paying, jobs. “If you care about American lives, and money, it just doesn’t make sense,” added Pearce, who had no role in the research.

Lighting chunks of coal on fire releases toxic ash, dust, mercury, and other pollutants into the air, which are linked to respiratory disease and damage to human nervous, digestive, and immune systems. Ultimately, that means folks breathing this stuff die earlier.

But when coal plants shutter, fewer people die.

“On average there’s a reduction in mortality rates when these coal-fired plants get shut off,” said Jennifer Burney, a researcher at UC San Diego’s Policy Design and Evaluation Laboratory and the author of the new study.

Some twenty-six thousand people alive, rather than dead, is societal progress. “It’s important to understand that those Americans are being protected,” said Pearce. Burning coal kills. “It’s the same as if you yanked 26,000 Americans off the street.”

Coal's big decline. Credit: eia

Burney’s research was exhaustive. It looked at every county in the continental U.S. It gathered data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on emissions from coal plants versus emissions after the operations shuttered, and collected mortality numbers from the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC). The difference in death rates was stark.

Not everyone pays coal's price, though. It's people near coal plants. “The burden is born locally,” said Burney.

And that’s bad news for large swathes of the world.

“Around the world we are not declining in coal use,” said Michael Hendryx, a professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Indiana University who had no role in the research. “It’s just insane,” he added.

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“It’s just insane."

Coal is the largest source of electrical generation in the world, at nearly 40 percent. It will remain that way unless nations, largely in Asia, commit to other energy sources, notes the International Energy Agency. China isn’t just largely powered by coal, it’s building hundreds of coal plants in other countries. Meanwhile, nations like Australia are providing Asia with bounties of the exceptionally problematic fossil fuel.

“[Australia] is still mining coal in their country furiously” stressed Hendryx. “This idea that we’re transitioning to safer fuel sources on the global scale is erroneous.”

So while some 26,610 people’s lives were spared over 10 years in the U.S., people in other nations are still exposed to high levels of coal pollution. “It’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the global problem,” said Hendryx.

“It’s truly terrible — it’s getting completely out of hand,” agreed Pearce. “Developing countries should be looking at these numbers [26,610 lives saved] very hard and correct our [coal-polluting] mistakes.”

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The drop in U.S. coal pollution didn't just spare lives. It also saved some 570 million bushels of corn, soybeans, and wheat, in part because there was less ashy pollution to block sunlight and reduce crop yields.

But the U.S. isn’t out of the coal-polluted woods, either. Not nearly. Some 52,000 Americans still die prematurely from inhaling coal pollution each year, said Pierce.

“It’s still an egregiously high number,” he added.

Yet at least coal is in rapid decline in the U.S. Coal use has been falling since 2007, even though the Trump administration has made efforts to buttress the coal industry.

“[The Trump administration] has been strikingly unsuccessful,” said Stan Meiburg, the former acting deputy administrator of the EPA. “Coal plants are unsuccessful in competing economically,” added Meiburg, now the director of Graduate Studies in Sustainability at Wake Forest University.

Natural gas and renewable energy are generally just cheaper ways to make energy. So coal plants continue to shutter, year after year. “The beat goes on and on,” said Meiburg, who had no role in the research.

SEE ALSO: Worst reasons for Trump to quit the Paris climate pact, unranked

Yet the natural gas plants aren’t the nation’s, nor world’s, savior. When burned, natural gas produces around half the carbon dioxide that coal produces, so it’s still heating the planet. What’s more, when natural gas leaks (before being burned) from fracking sites — which is ridiculously common— the gas travels into the atmosphere and heats the planet between 28 to 36 times more than carbon dioxide. It’s a potent greenhouse gas.

“From a climate change perspective, natural gas is no better than coal,” said Indiana University’s Hendryx. “We really have to get serious about cleaner alternatives.”

Skyrocketing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Credit: scripps institution of oceanography

“Now the challenge we’re facing is natural gas has played a role as a transition fuel, but you can’t run that string forever,” said Meiburg.

Alas, the U.S. is running hard with natural gas today. It’s now the largest electricity source in the nation. It’s playing a big role in warming the planet. It’s not a climate solution.

But at least it’s not poisoning Americans like coal. It's worth repeating: Over 50,000 Americans still die prematurely each year from the consequences of breathing coal pollution.

Said Pearce: “We know we're going to kill 50,000 Americans each year. Is everyone okay with that? I can't imagine anyone saying yes."