I was listening to a debate last night on nuclear power. A point was made that when compared to other power generating options, nuclear power compares well in the fatality stakes. My first thought, as I am sure yours will be, Chernobyl. How could he possibly say that when we have Chernobyl? However if you start to think about it, then there is sense there.
I was just reading my favourite news site, BBC News and I saw this article. No doubt this news will be in every newspaper by the time you read this... (for those who are too lazy to click I am talking about the 11 coal miners in US who died) When it comes down to it, coal power is the worst form of energy generation ever devised. There is the obvious cost to the environment and to health, but there is also the cost of getting the coal. These poor men are an example, but compared to what has happened to miners in Russia and especially China, these deaths are nothing. Mining is truly one of the most awful jobs in the world. The stress on the body from spending all that time in a dark hole breathing stale air must be enormous. I doubt you would meet many miners who had lived to a ripe old age. There seems to be a vicious cycle where people live in small isolated towns that survive due to mining and therefore to survive they must mine. As their fathers had done and probably their grandfathers too.
To be buried alive must be one of the worst ways to die. It really surprises me that in today's age of technology we need to send these poor men into pits so that we can light our houses. The sooner we do away with coal altogether the better I say.
Oh yes, I am not decided on nuclear power by the way... (we don't have it here yet..)
San Nakji for President!
5 comments:
I feel extremely sorry for the tragic death of coal miners. It was shocking to hear this, because I thought manual coal mining was only the curse of developing countries and US and other developed countries must have some gadgets for the job.
I feel really sorry for the families who thought their relatives were alive, only to be told that they were not.
I am pro-nuclear power houses. Its cost effective, everlasting, and environmental friendly(relatively).
It was heartbreaking to hear the devastating news early this morning. When I went to bed last night, they had just announced that the miners were alive. I felt so glad to hear the news. Then I woke up this morning, only to hear the tragic news that everyone had been "misinformed". *sighs*
Let's all pray for those familes and friends who have been affected by this. *tears*
The coal miners incident is extremely sad. This particular coal mine has a bad record of safety infractions. I don't know if that was a part of the problem here or not. Incidently, a number of newspapers at least here locally had false headlines and false stories. I guess the correction of the misinformation came after the print deadline.
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