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Whether we consider coal-mine deaths, or deaths above ground (30,000 - 60,000 in the U.S. annually, depending on which study you read), non-renewable energy takes a stunning toll on humanity. To be sure, going without power would be an even greater killer, since electricity runs most of the life-sustaining and enhancing equipment we take for granted. This boon of energy comes at a huge cost, however, and it does not have to be an either/or choice. Renewable energy has been technically feasible for decades, but a national energy policy which rewards and supports fossil energy producers keeps it from being realized.
The worst travesty is that for all the coal we mine, most of the energy produced is wasted. Over 65% thermal conversion loss occurs (Source: EIA Annual Energy Review 2006) in thermal power plants. There's got to be a better way.
There are so many alternative choices, it's staggering. Wind, which is coming on strong, tidal power, solar (100 by 100 miles of solar collectors could supply enough energy for the entire country, according to Sandia National Labs), and the biggest source of all: the hot rock underneath our feet. The USGS has a downloadable document about geothermal energy which states the following:
Even if only 1 percent of the thermal energy contained within the uppermost 10 kilometers of our planet could be tapped, this amount would be 500 times that contained in all oil and gas resources of the world.
I mentioned respiratory deaths earlier, but we haven't even considered the deaths and massive expenditures required to keep U.S. oil imports flowing. North American natural gas has peaked, and soon we will be importing that too, if the business-as-usual crowd has their way. Now that we have C02 to consider in the equation, it is nothing short of criminal to keep consuming coal and other fossil fuels. There is only one reason it's happening, and it's the same motivation which underlies the equally deadly global arms trade--money.
But there are fortunes to be made in renewable energy as well. Big fortunes. All it takes is a government with the political will to slap down the entrenched kleptocrats in the fossil industries. Let's call a halt to the murderous and wasteful U.S. energy policy. Our planet and our lives literally depend on it.
