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eppur_se_muova

(36,227 posts)
11. What on Earth is *perfectly* safe ? Coal ? Oil ? Gas ? Electricity ? even renewables ?
Sun Jan 22, 2017, 11:33 PM
Jan 2017

Every form of energy has its own particular hazards, and particularly when stored in concentrated form. Coal kills miners on a regular basis, as well as the environment. Gas lines blow up with alarming frequency. Electricity kills many people every year, but usually one at a time, so it gets less notice. Dams collapse, and also lead to methane emissions from decaying organic sediments. Hell, life is not perfectly safe. The best available can always be improved on, and "better than others" is the process by which inferior technologies are rolled over to make way for better ones, whether the improvement is marginal or paradigm-shifting. Expect perfection and you will always be disappointed; be pragmatic and take what you can get for now, but work for better in the future, and you will almost always see your expectations met, eventually.

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