The United States faces the possibility of much more rapid climate change by the end of the century than previous studies have suggested, according to a new report led by the U.S. Geological Survey.
And then there are the environmental disasters that even the "skeptics" cannot deny:
What may be the nation’s largest spill of coal ash lay thick and largely untouched over hundreds of acres of land and waterways Wednesday after a dam broke this week, as officials and environmentalists argued over its potential toxicity.
And it gets worse. This statement in the article is just incredible:
“You’re not going to be endangered by touching the ash material,” said Barbara Martocci, a spokeswoman for the T.V.A. “You’d have to eat it. You have to get it in your body.”
That's incredibly comforting, isn't it? Particularly given the fact that this is going to end up in the water supply, and poison all of the (remaining) wildlife in the area. "You'd have to eat it." Indeed - there's going to be no choice for some.
UPDATE: According to the headline of this Scientific American article, "Coal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste."
Over the past few decades, however, a series of studies has called these stereotypes into question. Among the surprising conclusions: the waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, fly ash—a by-product from burning coal for power—contains up to 100 times more radiation than nuclear waste.
At issue is coal's content of uranium and thorium, both radioactive elements. They occur in such trace amounts in natural, or "whole," coal that they aren't a problem. But when coal is burned into fly ash, uranium and thorium are concentrated at up to 10 times their original levels.
Fly ash uranium sometimes leaches into the soil and water surrounding a coal plant, affecting cropland and, in turn, food. People living within a "stack shadow"—the area within a half- to one-mile (0.8- to 1.6-kilometer) radius of a coal plant's smokestacks—might then ingest small amounts of radiation. Fly ash is also disposed of in landfills and abandoned mines and quarries, posing a potential risk to people living around those areas.
UPDATE #2: And worser and worser still. As I said the other day, this stuff is finding its way into the water supply. "You'd have to eat it. You'd have to get it into your body." Words that will haunt the T.V.A. spokesperson. And yes, you can be sure that the situation is even worse than that.
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