Monday, May 17, 2010

I've got more important things to worry about

1969 Santa Barbara oil spill
1978 Amoco Cadiz oil spill off the coast of Brittany
1979 Three Mile Island nuclear power core meltdown
1979 Ixtoc I oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound
2008 Coal-ash spill in Tenessee
2010 29 coal miners die in West Virginia
2010 Deep Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

This is only a few of the items on a very long list of devastations on behalf of energy production. Sharon Begley in Newsweek notes that we don't balance the risk of environmental damage with our energy use. We also have short memories. Enthusiasm for drilling doesn't take long to rebound after a disaster. Why? The answer is simple. We love our SUVs and wide screen TVs too much to care how many birds and beaches are lost in the process of keeping the energy flowing.

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