"Clean" Coal Websites Reaction

The site that appeals to me most is the Reality site. I think this is because the American power site has a lot of emphasis on money issues, such as how much coal costs compared to other resources, and how much money is needed to fund “clean” coal. I like the Reality site because it is more about protecting the people and the earth we live on rather than saving us money. I would rather put the money in to live healthier than save a little money now that could lead to my earlier death due to unhealthy emissions that we could have stopped. From what I understand CC technology just wants to find a way to keep using coal and capture the emissions and store them rather than just letting them out in the atmosphere. I think this would in turn cause more issues than solving them. Yes, it would keep the emissions out of the atmosphere but where are they going? We are going to have to spend more money capturing and storing them and that money could just be used on finding healthier ways to give us electricity. I think the only thing at stake for American power is their supporting companies going out of business, and I think they are just trying to hide the fact that they aren’t doing that much to better the earth. With the Reality website, they are appealing to everyone in the world and the affects that the harmful emissions have on our every day lives, and our health. The future with American Power just means rising costs for coal, and rising costs to keep supporting their research of how to capture the emissions, while the future with Reality spending money finding a way to help save our earth and save our lives. Logically, Reality is appealing to us by saying that coal is like cigarettes. Everyone understands that this means coal emissions are harmful and are going to cause us serious health problems in the long run. American Power also shows us how much percentage of our electricity comes from coal. They show this by state, and I think this does appeal to many people logically because for states like Ohio, roughly 85% of our electricity comes from coal. This could scare Ohioans into believing that we need to support their efforts to better the coal industries, because we rely on coal so heavily at this point in time. I think the audience for Reality is more of just ordinary Americans, while the American Power is more for other coal or electric industries. I think this because American Power shows more of the money side and is trying to get followers that would be able to contribute to their research, while Reality is just trying to get the facts out there and let people know about the harm that they might not have known existed. The American Power site also seems to be more a professional sales site instead of an informational site. The sponsors for the Reality site are all environmentalists groups, wildlife groups, and natural resource groups. The American Power sponsors are coal and electric industries. The interests of Reality are the American people while the interests of American power are the coal industries. This gives Reality more of an edge, because they appeal to people in America on a more emotional level. They are there to better our lives, while the other one is there to better the coal and electric industry and take more of America money. The emotional appeal of the Reality site for me was the dead bird. It really shows us that the coal companies don’t care that they are taking lives; they just want to make money. This helps their cause by making people aware that this is a serious issue and death does occur do to it. Americas Power did not appeal to me at all on an emotional level. I felt like they were just trying to find ways around giving truthful answers in the FAQ’s section and this makes me want to look into other resources to get my energy and stop using coal since those companies seem to be almost deceitful. The American Power website is colorful and bright and this tries to mask the bad parts of the coal industry while Reality is black and represents death and doesn’t beat around the bush about the dangers the way that American Power tries to do. I find Reality more persuasive because it appeals to people on a real level. It lets us know the truth about the harmful affects of coal emissions. American Power losses points with me because I feel like I can’t get a straight answer in any of the questions that are up on their page. I feel like they are just out for money and to show Americans how much money they spend on coal and this may be hurting their cause rather than helping.