Coal facts.

• Position: Matters Of Scale

Number of late-model cars it takes to generate 10,000 tons of nitrogen oxide (N[O.sub.x]), the principal constituent of lung-inflaming smog, in one year 500,000 Number of average-sized coal-burning power plants it takes to generate the same amount of N[O.sub.x] 1 Number of coal burning electric power plants it took to release 17.5 million tons of carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]), the principal global-warming gas, in the town of Monroe, Michigan in 1 year 1 Number of trees you'd have to cut down or burn to add that amount of C[O.sub.2] to the atmosphere 761,000,000 Approximate number of Americans who had died in the aftermath of the Iraq War, with these deaths becoming a major national political issue, as of late 2003 300 Number likely to die each year, according to widely accepted statistical models, as a result of diseases caused by the Monroe, Michigan coal-burning plant--the plant where George Bush chose to give a speech touting his new energy policy giving high priority to building new coal burning power plants 300 Population of Cheshire, Ohio, in 2000 2,500 Population of Cheshire in 2003, after a protracted dispute between the citizens and the American Electric Power Co. (AEP) over pollution from the company's coal-burning plant...