Green Energy Saves Lives

It's time to shed one of the dirtiest and old-fashioned sources of power in this country. While coal is cheap and plentiful it is also dangerous and recent disasters in the fossil fuel industry have sparked an intense debate about green energy.

With 29 families mourning in West Virginia and a refinery explosion in Washington state claiming five lives, how much more loss of life will our energy greed take?

How many more lives need to be lost before coal mining is deemed too dangerous? According to Counter Currents, residents of a mining town are 70 percent more likely to develop kidney disease and 64 percent more likely to develop some kind of lung disease.

And that's on top of living with the possibility of being buried alive every day if you work in the mine itself. When will enough be enough?

When we see animals becoming endangered of going extinct the government forces penalties upon people who don't change their ways to help protect the animals or wildlife. Why aren't we doing the same for humans?

When Toyota cost American lives by faulty accelerators in their cars, Congress held their CEO accountable. When will Massey Energy's head roll? This type of dirty energy policy that costs lives in inexcusable in the greatest nation on planet earth.

If Massey Energy truly cares about its employees it will start a division that enhance renewable resources like wind or solar. Massey is a huge company with large profit margins and can surely sell some assets to make money with renewable sources of energy. Surely it can re-train some of its West Virginia employees to be able to set up wind turbines or manufacture solar panels.

Mining companies are perfectly suited and adaptable for making use of land-lease agreements and getting permits for wind and solar farms. They already have inroads with the government forces who can pour over their many permits, leases, and inspections to even have a mining operation in the first place.

It's time to shed our antiquated ways of doing things. We're human beings for crying out loud! We can be smarter than ourselves. Ever since the Bronze Age there has been mining and miners who have died in tragic accidents.

Not only does our energy policy cost lives due to mining but refinery explosions and safety issues are also putting the lives of millions of people at risk. What's wrong with clean energy?

When the energy crisis of the 1970s hit and gas prices soared due to political fallout in the Middle East, that was the perfect time for America to embrace a new energy policy. But as per usual politics, lobbyists, and money grabbers prevented a green revolution then that would have prevented not only mine disasters but also our continued involvement in the affairs of the Middle East. All Exxon had to do was put more of their profits towards research and development and we'd have wind farms everywhere now. Coal companies, and the mining culture, need to realize what we should have learned 30 years ago.

What amazes me is that companies who do not diversify or adapt to a changing world will wither and die just like any animal or plant that can't change with the world in which they live. Why can't the oil and coal companies see that they're old and outdated?

It's time to wake up from our coal and oil induced coma and smell the fresh air of wind turbines and solar power. Enough already. Enough pollution, enough dependence upon other countries, and enough death and destruction due to our greed. How much are the lives of those miners in West Virginia worth to the profits of Massey Energy? How much money will those families get to compensate them for loved ones that they will never see again?

The earth is a sanctuary of life but our energy companies continually drain the life blood of our planet. Enough already.