January 31st, 2009
Hello, anybody paying attention?
Can we please stop being stupid? I hate to pick on Kentucky but it’s their turn in the barrel. Folks built New Orleans below high tide levels and then didn’t keep up the levees. Poeple around Galveston like to live smack up against a restless ocean. Hurricanes be damned. The TVA built huge mountains of toxic coal ash and then expected those mountains to stay put. Forever? Up in Minnesota a poorly maintained highway bridge, kaplooey. Now an ice storm takes down hundreds of miles of power and communications lines in Kentucky.
And why aren’t those lines all underground anyway? Because it means short-term higher profits and lower costs for the folks who own and maintain those lines. Now once again we suckers in tax-land get to pay for thousands of national guard troops and a zillion hours in emergency crew overtime to clean up the mess. Can we start doing it right the first time?
Scientists have warned us that weather will get more extreme as the planet warms up. Exceptional storms will no longer be the exception. Underground utilities in much of the nation where earthquakes are rare make sense. California: you’re on your own.
A newsman since 1969, Harry Fuller has worked for CBS, ABC, CNBC Europe, CNET and was founding news director at TechTV. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to GreenTech Pastures via Email alerts or RSS.
