Energy and resources

How we get our energy to function in this modern age shows a real lack of respect for the environment.  So does our quest to get materials for our consumer products.  It also shows how we are destroying our planet - and thereby committing mass suicide.

Coal ash spill in TN in 2008

 Cooper mine in Utah
Open pit copper mine run by London-based mining conglomerate Rio Tinto/Kennecott in Bingham Canyon, Utah.  It is the world's largest open-pit mine and has created the world's largest mining-related water pollution problem. (Photo: arbyreed)

Fracking in Washington County, PA

 

Gas explosion

A massive fire is roars through a mostly residential neighborhood in San Bruno, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010. Firefighters from San Bruno and surrounding cities are battling the blaze that started on a hillside and is now consuming homes in a residential neighborhood. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Coal pollution in China

Mountain top removal in West Virginia

Polluted water

Coal pollution in the USA

Fracking

Just a week after Halliburton had refused to release information on its hydraulic fracturing fluids to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the company promised to disclose the chemicals generally associated with fracking—and it announced the creation of a new, safer fluid.

Nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl

Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Cumulative BP oil slick footprint as of July 16, 2010 (graphic: SkyTruth.org via Flickr)

Oil spill

Red Tide: 
Fertilizers in the gulf of Mexico