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It Was the Worst Industrial Disaster In US History, and We Learned Nothing
superboj writes "Forget Deepwater Horizon or Three Mile Island: The biggest industrial disaster in American history actually happened in 2008, when more than a billion gallons of coal sludge ran through the small town of Kingston, Tennessee. This story details how, five years later, nothing has been done to stop it happening again, thanks to energy industry lobbying, federal inaction, and secrecy imposed on Congress. 'It estimated that 140,000 pounds of arsenic had spilled into the Emory River, as well as huge quantities of mercury, aluminum and selenium. In fact, the single spill in Kingston released more chromium, lead, manganese, and nickel into the environment than the entire U.S. power industry spilled in 2007. ... Kingston, though, is by far the worst coal ash disaster that the industry has ever seen: 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash, containing at least 10 known toxins, were spilled. In fact, the event ... was even bigger than the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010, which spewed approximately 1 million cubic yards of oil into the Gulf of Mexico."
Parent is a global warming scam troll! Mod parent into the Sewer as troll. BTW this post can be modded as offtopic (fair is fair).
In fact, the event that woke Sarah McCoin that nightâ"the deluge that moved houses and ripped trees from the groundâ"was even bigger than the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010, which spewed approximately 1 million cubic yards of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
The oil that 'spilled' into the gulf in 2010 was a naturally occurring substance, as evidenced by how easily the environment dealt with it. And it genuinely makes sense to imagine that sub-surface events are exposing oil to the ocean on a regular basis, but we don't know about it because it's all very normal.
No, a better comparison would be to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M... which spews ash everywhere on a somewhat regular basis. Ash = ash.
Unless of course you're trying to make less of an environmental argument and more of an anti-fossil fuels one. The latter is the only thing Deepwater and these coal ash events have in common.
Yeah you don't see one and you've been looking so hard and evaluating all the options. Here's a hint ANY option beats extinction.
Look up the "princeton wedges" concept. A combination of extant technologies and policies can stop us, right now, from the point of no return. It's not a technological question looking for a fix, it's a socio-political blockage on the part of American / Australian and UK conservatives all fueled by the denial industry which is funded by Exxon, the Koch brothers and the rest of the oil and gas industry.
BTW, each and every member of their boards might want to look over the Nuremberg trials to see what civilization DOES to people who think that 1) they're beyond the law or 2) since no law currently explicitly prevents them from doing what they're doing, they're forever beyond the reach of justice.
America will dissolve your assets. We'll seize your assets from your heirs and assignees. We'll nationalize your companies and plow the profits into doing whatever we need to do to survive. You're nothing,and America and her people are everything. In fact, you're less than nothing.
As for the mouthpieces of denial, the "think tanks" and "scientists" and PR firms don't kid yourselves. We'll hunt each and every one of you down to the ends of the earth, no matter how long it takes, no matter the cost. Rest assured the thoughts and beliefs you have which cause you to think that you'll never be brought to justice, because "you're entitled to your opinion" , because you "really believed it" because you still "really believe it", rest assured that all of that will be swept aside in a torrent of rage and justice seeking and that loophole in the law you think will save from justice will turniinto a noose just like it did at Nuremberg.
Hear my voice Exxon board? This is the first few faint strains of all that the future holds for you, your heirs, your power and your wealth, your influence and lifestyle. This is just the first tiniest brush stroke of what the future looks like for each of you personally. This is just the smallest , faintest sampling of THE RAGE.
Guess what happens when civilization starts to collapse first for a few small countries, then poor people in cities, then millions in larger cities and the countryside then tens of millions then billions of people? Guess what happens when you and the cock sucking sycophants you've populated Washington with *no longer hold any power* ? Guess that's pretty much a mere fiction , an impossibility to you.
The way Nuremberg was to that other group of mass murderers.
If I were a lawyer, PR agent, accountant , printer, developer, manager, or donation taker I'd start now , today to make pains to put on a VERY public display that you strongly disapprove the Koch - Exxon denial machine and YOU aren't taking money from them in ANY form. Yeah, I'd be thinking hard about whether I wanted to be associated however faintly, with the Great American Denial Machine. I'd be thinking about my future and what my family thinks of me, and what I was doing to them, in, and to you know, reality and the earth where they're going to have to spend the rest of their time.