Last week's Question of the Week asked whether readers thought Montana's coal resources can be developed without the release of harmful global-warming emissions. The responses were split, nearly down the middle.

Among 348 responses to this unscientific poll, 183 answered yes, and 165 said no.

Some readers' comments:

- No. To mine coal, explore for coal, go to meetings regarding coal development, these all use fossil fuels. Any time you use fossil fuels to create energy, you have emissions. And then to convert coal to energy you will have emissions, so the best we can do is to minimize the emissions and cut back on our use of electricity and motor vehicles.

- Surely it is possible to do something else with harmful emissions and not just spew them into the air. I fail to see why they can't be pumped underground, for instance to help get more oil out of oil wells. This will cost more money, but we've reached the point, both in terms of energy self-sufficiency and global warming, where we need to spend whatever it takes.

- It has yet to be proved that human activities, rather than natural cycles, are the major cause of warming.