![\"Map](\"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/map3-java-coal.png\")
<\/a>Map data by OpenStreetMap via ArcGIS<\/p><\/div>\n
Coastal communities, however, rely on that same environment for fishing, transportation, and recreation, and burning coal often leads to pollution. In a 2017 paper<\/a>, researchers from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Virginia found that sea-based transport has a significant environmental impact on the climate and water quality.<\/p>\n \u201cCoal releases a range of toxic substances into the environment. These go into the atmosphere, rain, groundwater, and seawater, and then to flora, fauna, and people,\u201d says David Obura, an ecologist and fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia who studies the environmental impacts of coal-fired plants on coastal communities.<\/p>\n Coal dust from ships also blows into neighboring areas. \u201cThe coal unloading from the ships itself oftentimes creates severe air pollution,\u201d said Ginting.<\/p>\n This is worrying because Indonesia has weak standards<\/a> for both air and water emissions from plants compared to the United States, Europe, and China. Moreover, coal barges often wait at sea, blocking access to fishing grounds and sometimes damaging coral reefs with their anchors and keels, which places natural areas relatively far from coal plants at risk. One of Java\u2019s top diving and beach tourism destinations, Karimunjawa, abuts a coal route that supplies several plants that will soon include Java 7. Open-air barges have already damaged the area\u2019s reefs and polluted the water. Locals worry the situation will worsen if more plants come online and more ships transit through the coastal environment.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, we need about one million tonnes of coal for existing coal plants and it will double to two million tonnes for fulfilling future coal plants\u2019 demand,\u201d says Adila Isfandiary, a researcher with Greenpeace Indonesia. Regular coal transport is worrisome enough, but Greenpeace Indonesia is also concerned about the potential for greater disasters, such as what happened earlier this year when two barges collided in Pelabuhanratu in the province of Java Barat, dumping huge amounts of coal into the sea.<\/p>\n \u201cThis could happen more often once all of the coal power plants are operating in Indonesia,\u201d Isfandiary says.<\/p>\n There is local opposition to the proposed plants, but it is fragmented: village leaders are often offered jobs in the coal plant so opposition tends to come from those at the bottom of the village hierarchy, such as poor fishermen and small-scale farmers. The Java 7 plant has employed many villagers during its construction phase, but Ginting expects opposition to increase once the plant becomes operational and staff is downsized and pollution increases.<\/p>\n The other hope for a halt to construction is the question of economic value\u2014there is growing evidence that Indonesia does not need all this new coal<\/a> and that overcapacity could doom the country\u2019s ratepayers to subsidizing the coal plants for generations. A recent blackout also exposed the risk of centralized power and has increased the call for decentralized, renewable alternatives<\/a>\u2014of which Indonesia has ample potential to produce.<\/p>\n For now, though, Indonesia remains committed to coal. That means more coal smokestacks, barges, and stress on Java\u2019s already burdened coastline and the local communities, sharks, dolphins, and other marine wildlife that depend on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Indonesia is experiencing a coal power boom, particularly on Java, the most populous island in the world. One of the dozens of planned plants, Java 7, will be operational by October, and its construction has already left some communities questioning <\/p>\n