Human Society can be Stupid.

posted by The Vidiot @ 1:42 PM Permalink

First off, let me just say I FINALLY got around to reading "Black Elk Speaks". I know, it's an old book. I know, everybody who read it already read it in the seventies. Whatever.

Black Elk's descriptions of what it was like to live on the plains with no interference from Wasichu was idyllic to say the least. They wasted nothing and wanted for nothing. I'm not saying it was perfect. They did steal a horse here and there and kill folks here and there, but for the most part, they were deeply satisfied with life. The way he spoke about the way the Wasi'chu wasted the bison herds and broke up the land and spoiled the water, it was hard to read. (The hardest part to read was the chapter on Wounded Knee. I was crying on the subway.)

Anyway, I bring it up because the Wasi'chu STILL waste and pollute. Now, I've always disliked nuclear energy. My main reason for feeling that way is the waste. What the hell do you do with that waste? They haven't really figured it out and if, heaven forbid, something catastrophic happens to the energy grid or the human population for that matter, all those holding facilities are going to run amok and kill whatever life is left. (Hint: Head to Canada. They have the fewest nuke facilities.)

The other thing I go batty over is the idea of "clean coal". I mean, who are they trying to fool? There's no such thing. There never has been and there never will be.

"There's been a nationwide campaign by the coal industry to promote the use of clean coal. But clean coal is an oxymoron." Volz says it's true that new technologies can limit atmospheric emissions. "But the law of conservation of matter means that the toxins that don't go into the air simply get transferred to wastewater and coal ash," he says. "If a toxin is in a lump of coal and you burn it, it has to go somewhere."

So why don't we figure out a way to live within the ecosystem without destrying it? So-called 'primitive' Native Americans had it down pat.

Labels: energy, native americans