We all love the inputs, but what about the outputs ?
Fossil Fuels have been providing an easy life and easy pickings for the citizens and enterprises of the industrialised world for some time.
People love their jet-fuelled lives. One man will move one kilometre from his home to a restaurant in two and a half metric tonnes of steel and glass believing he is admired for his larger-than-car-sized car. He will wear sunshades, and oil-slicked hair (if he has any) and sport a tan from his recent holiday over the ocean. A life of glory and feeling good about himself.
But what about the emissions ? What, indeed, about the environmental devastation at the places the Fossil Fuels (and metal and glass) were mined and refined and manufactured ?
Coal is dirty – and dangerous. This month’s coal mine disaster in West Virginia, United States should have underscored this very point for a great number of people.
It makes Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s recent debate with Massey Energy’s Don Blankenship all the more pertinent, and poignant.
It’s time we made the decision to leave the Coal in the ground.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says not to get science from Glenn Beck : By Josh Smith : Deseret News : Published: Tuesday, April 6, 2010 : Don’t get your science from Glenn Beck. That’s the message environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to bring to citizens and media across the country, and recently he brought it to Utah. Americans should be trying to prevent further global climate change and environmental destruction for economic and national security reasons, but an “18-year propaganda campaign” by oil and coal companies has misled the public and media on their dangers, Kennedy said. “The science on global warming is stronger than it is on tobacco and cancer, yet we still have these myths that create doubt…Our children will pay the price for our joy ride,” he said. “Incumbent” energy companies, such as those using oil, coal and nuclear power, are hogging taxpayer resources and hiding the true costs of such energy, Kennedy said. “When they say it’s clean, we know it’s a dirty lie. When they say it’s cheap, we know it’s a bigger lie,” he said…