Are we creating a second generation of Downwinders?

[helderheid]

"When the federal government wanted to blow up a simulation of a nuclear weapon at the Nevada Test Site - code name Divine Strake - more than 10,000 Utah residents, mostly from the southern part of the state, petitioned the feds and forced an end to the nonsense.

They had been there, done that through the Cold War when nuclear hell rained from the skies, poisoning an innocent population. Years later, we learned that souls in the 48 contiguous states, residents of Canada and Mexico and some in Europe were also victimized by nuclear fallout.

Another threat is coming our way. It's the Toquop Energy Project, a coal-fired power plant planned for construction just 14 miles north of Mesquite.
Company officials are promising no ill effects will be visited upon the people of Southern Utah, that pollutants will be kept at a minimum and pollutants that do escape will not land here.

What you need to know, however, is that in 2002, according to Environmental Protection Agency reports, coal-fired power plants were responsible for 63 percent of the nation's sulfur dioxide emissions, a major cause of acid rain; 40 percent of mercury emissions, which can cause brain damage in fetuses and neurological problems in children; and 22 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions that cause smog. ..."

<snip>

It continues...

"...What you need to know is that the United States is the No. 1 cause of climate-warming greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide emitted from coal-fired plants and petroleum-powered vehicles.

What you need to know is that this stuff can kill you, just as surely as the lethal byproducts the federal government spewed into the air when it exploded more than 1,000 atomic test bombs at the Nevada Test Site even though the feds lied to Southern Utah and the world, saying the fallout was harmless when they knew otherwise."

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http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071110/OPINION/711100308

[Deja Q]

1. Most of our emissions pertain to transportation.

Public busing, telecommuting, and living closer to stores would alleviate so many problems.

I've noticed more stores crop up within a rational walking distance in my area and I have walked.

Solar power, removing incandescent light bulbs would assist energy usage as well.

There is a good side to all this. There are so many things we can truly do. If we choose to do them.

I have. As much as I can. Even before it became popular and when I was laughed at when not chastised FOR spending money on fluorescent bulbs, et al...