DailyDirt: The Risks Of Fossil Fuels
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Relatively cheap fossil fuels allow everyone to enjoy comfortable lifestyles. But every so often, there seem to be horrible stories of environmental damage caused by our continuing addiction to underground hydrocarbons. Pulling oil, coal and gas out of the ground is probably going to be the way we get most of our energy for the foreseeable future, so it's just a bit worrying that we haven't quite figured out how to really mitigate oil spills and other accidents. Fortunately, Mother Nature hasn't taken full revenge (yet?) on us.- Recently, Chevron apologized for one of its natural gas wells exploding (and killing one person) by giving away coupons for free pizza to local residents. Some residents accepted the pizza apology as a thoughtful gift, but there are plenty of other people who voiced their opinion that the free pizza vouchers are an insult. [url]
- About 25 years ago, the Exxon Valdez spilled about 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. Oil from that spill still lingers on the shore, and wildlife hasn't fully recovered yet. [url]
- The Exxon Valdez's 11 million gallons of spilled oil sounds like a lot, but during the Gulf War in 1991, hundreds of millions of gallons were spilled -- with estimates ranging from 300 to 500 million gallons. The spill was the deliberate action of Saddam Hussein, presumably meant to deter American troops from landing on the shore. [url]
- While BP is still dealing with the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon accident, it just spilled a bit of crude oil into Lake Michigan, a few miles away from Chicago. Luckily, the cold weather makes it a bit easier to clean up as the oil solidifies into a wax-like substance. [url]
Filed Under: accidents, deepwater horizon, energy, environmental damage, fossil fuels, oil spills, prince william sound, valdez
Companies: bp, chevron, exxon
