Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
7
REDUCING RISKS AND SIDE
EFFECTS
THE POLLUTION CHALLENGE
Let's recap where we are. We use cheap, plentiful, reliable energy from fossil fuels to transform our en-
vironment to meet our needs. This leads to a far longer, more opportunity-filled life—and, it turns out, far
greater safety from, even mastery of, climate. And the same holds true for environmental quality in general.
We don't take a safe environment and make it dangerous; we take a dangerous environment and make it far
safer.
But at the same time, we do create risks and side effects that can be deadly, and we need to understand
them in order to set policies that will maximize benefits while minimizing risks. Like all technologies, fossil
fuels have risks and side effects. When we transform those ancient dead plants into energy, bad things can
happen.
Every time we use energy from fossil fuels (and from any other form of energy) we are engaging in a
process that is filled with risk and that, if not managed properly, can become deadly. The process of produ-
cing energy can involve all manner of hazardous materials. For example, hydrofluoric acid, a vital material
in certain kinds of oil drilling (and many kinds of mining) can literally travel through your skin and melt
your bones. 1 The process of producing energy, because it involves something that can generate enormous
amountsofpower,alwayscarriestheriskofthepowergoingoutofcontrol:explosions,electrocutions,fires.
And then the process of producing fossil fuels involves by-products that can be hazardous to our health.
Take coal, the fossil fuel with the most potentially harmful by-products. Energy journalist Robert Bryce
describes our “intense love-hate relationship” with “the black fuel.”
Coal heated people's homes and fueled the Industrial Revolution in England, but it also made parts of
the country, particularly the smog-ruined cities, nearly uninhabitable. In 1812, in London, a combination
of coal smoke and fog became so dense that according to one report, “for the greater part of the day it
was impossible to read or write at a window without artificial light. Persons in the streets could scarcely
be seen in the forenoon at two yards distance.” Today, two hundred years later, some of the very same
 
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