Like coal, natural gas is relatively cheap, the technology involved is simple and widespread, and electricity can be produced on-demand. It produces much lower levels of air pollutants such as particulates, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides than coal, but significantly more than other source apart from biomass. For instance, a household supplied only by natural gas for a year would generate 24 pounds of air-borne particulate matter which has been implicated in respiratory infection and asthma. Touted as the cleaner alternative to coal, this claim may be true, but it doesn't make natural gas sustainable. Besides being cheap and abundant, the only thing that coal has to recommend it is that is can provide power on-demand.
Coal mining has major impacts on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
While every other source of electricity is basically solar energy in one form or another, nuclear power harnesses the power contained within the nuclei of atoms. Consequently, risks and impacts involved are unique. With its low emissions and low land use, nuclear seems falsely attractive at first glance, but when you begin to look at its entire lifecycle, the potentially devastating human health and safety concerns are clear. The uranium is then processed in a highly energy-intensive process and fabricated into fuel rods. In both cases, a large amount of heat is released which is used to create steam to turn turbines and generate electrical energy.