“Technology may have given mankind many great things, but unfortunately they came at a great cost,” Tom added.
Tina responded, “Building bridges, tunnels and the interstate resulted in the deaths of a few workers. Whoever told you ‘work can’t kill you’
was a bit misguided. Don’t forget those who died in the coal mines or laborers who may have only been rewarded with black lung disease so they could retire early.”
“The nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island in eastern Pennsylvania and at Chernobyl cut short the lives of too many good people. The amount of cancer and sickness today in parts of Russia is more than any country should have to suffer,” chimed in 25
Tanya.
“Don’t forget all the accidents brought about in extracting natural gas from the ground as well as oil, that one resource that seems to be in everything
– especially in the Gulf of Mexico, thanks to that BP situation in the spring of 2010. I thought the company was going green, but maybe their intention had something to do with that stuff in their wallets,” murmured Tom.
Tina said, “You may not want to eat any Gulf shrimp for some time, or any other seafood for that matter.”
“And I thought that fish was supposed to be good for you – rich in omega-3. Now sea creatures as well as birds and other wildlife are loaded with another type of oil.”
Sadly, many of these disasters could have been prevented if more precautions were taken and corporations followed regulations, rather than ignoring them.
In many instances routine inspections were either haphazard or not done at all. Even so, when it comes to coal, there never will be such a thing as clean coal, no matter what the experts tell you.
When you consider those huge machines that remove the tops of mountains in search of that black gold, there’s just too much devastation to the earth, especially when companies leave huge messes and don’t restore the area to what it once was. The 26
workers don’t seem to be a consideration when CEOs open a mine.
Because of the mess the Exxon Valdez created as well as other numerous oil spills that have occurred – that recent one in the Gulf may be the worst one ever – it seems that oil isn’t the answer either. Forget about nuclear power. Besides the two mentioned fiascos – much too kind a word here – what about the accidents that were covered up? The clincher for the end of that idea may be the fact that nuclear power has been around going on three-quarters of a century without a solution as to where to store spent nuclear fuel.
People swear that the energy source of the twentieth-first century could be gas but that poses a few problems too. The process of obtaining gas from the ground involves hydraulic fracturing – also known as hydrofracking, hydrofracturing or simply fracing – which is nothing more than a method for bringing gas out of ground. There’s a problem with that because companies want to take shortcuts in the procedure, and have no concern about leaving a mess. It’s even worse as these corporations pollute the earth in the process, and our precious water supply is put in danger. In the consideration of nuclear, gas, oil and coal, precautions may enable the process to continue, but in obtaining each of these, there are too many problems and too much danger to our planet.
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