A list of oil and gas pipeline failures from 2000 through 2013. Take a look at the information provided by Wikipedia in the previous link. The sheer number, along with the causes and frequency of these assaults on the ecosystem are mind-boggling, truly staggering.
The Guardian names names and lays the blame of the threat to the environment on fossil fuel entities. You will recognize the players from reports in the news of calamities associated with their way of conducting business.
It is not only liquids and gasses that contribute to a diminished quality of life. Coal is also identified as a major player in the degradation of bodies of water used for drinking and recreation.
The recent contamination of the Dan River in North Carolina is a case in point. The causes are noted by the website cleanenergy.org in the following statement.
"Before this disaster, DENR had determined the Dan River plant was operating illegally and Duke chose to do nothing. This spill was a failure of Duke’s routine maintenance, it wasn’t caused by a natural disaster or extenuating circumstances, reinforcing the reality that it’s nearly impossible to safely operate these old coal ash impoundments. The only effective means of addressing these impoundments is to remove the ash away into new dry, lined landfills that are safely away from public waterways, just like Santee Cooper plans to do in South Carolina." - See more at: http://blog.cleanenergy.org/2014/02/06/thirteen-more-coal-ash-disasters-waiting-to-happen/#sthash.QbmmpKkQ.dpuf
Update
North Carolina regulators shielded Dukes coal ash pollution according to an article published February 9th 2014 in Bloomberg Businessweek News in an article by By Michael Biesecker And Mitch Weiss.
The assault on the environment is done for the usual purpose of accumulating profit in support of the lifestyle which has become the norm for technologically developed societies. This means that the consumer of these products as well as those who utilize the technology in the production of these products share responsibility for ecological calamities such as this.
In places to numerous to mention the blackened footprints of the oil and coal industries are staining the earth, water and sky.
One Canadian pipeline has already exploded. There is little reason to think the industry will ever be free from this kind of incident. One event after another occurs diminishing the quality of life wherever it happens.
Today the promoters of the Keystone Pipeline from Canada are seeking to convince American lawmakers to install a cross country pipeline system to facilitate the sale of 'tar sands' oil. Is this a good idea? If so for whom is it a good idea?
There is no assurance on the safety of such conveyances as the historical record in the link at the first sentence of this article demonstrates. Is the harm done by mishaps due to this industries endeavors enough to make the project not worth the while? Your answer, of course, depends on the value system that guides and informs your decisions.
King Carbon needs to be required to behave responsibly. This will not happen unless there are laws that impose harsh unremitting prison sentences instead of fines on the decision makers in this industry. It is not bloodless, lifeless people who make these decisions. The ones who make the decisions are human beings. It is they who should be the target of the laws penalties as well as the bloodless 'people' who spit smoke into the air, stain our land and turn the water of life into poison. Life on earth is too precious to exchange, in Alex Grey's words, for "a little capital".
We the people who breathe air, drink water, have blood circulating in our veins and depend on the viability of the earth in order for our own life to continue have a lot at stake in this.
a Clear Running Water state of mind
art by David H. Roche (C) 2014
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