The death toll in the Turkish mine collapse continues to rise. It currently stands at 274. Thats 274 more people than died in the Fukushima meltdown. Will we hear countless reports day after day, week after week talking about the inherent dangers of coal mining? Will we be presented with a conveyor belt of pundits on TV telling us their opinions on the matter rather than - you know - facts? Will Germany close down all of its coal-fired power plants? Will Greenpeace use this disaster to highlight the fact that coal mining is incredibly harmful to the health and wellbeing of the people who have little choice than to work digging underground for up to 8 hours a day, or the devastation caused to the surrounding countryside by pits, slag and slurry and/or the impact on the global environment of burning millions of tons of the damn stuff every day? I doubt it. Why might that be? Possibly because 7 of the 10 biggest corporations in the world are fossil fuel companies. They have the money to crush any alternative - and nuclear power is their biggest competition. Bear in mind that nuclear disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima are (mercifully) few and far between. Coal, gas and oil on the other hand... add together the fatalities from mine collapses, oil fires, gas explosions, transportation disasters, global warming, WARS... you can count the dead in the hundreds of thousands. Its a dirty business and with the easy-to-reach fossil fuels running out, its about to get a whole lot dirtier. Expect to see a hell of a lot more tar sands, fracking and deepsea oil spills before this decade is out :-(
Posted on: Thu, 15 May 2014 03:34:33 +0000