Perspective Re: Yucca Mountain timeline

[maury <maury@WEBTEXAS.COM>]

Repeatedly, over the past few years, the American public has been

subjected to a litany of catastrophe -- to predictions of impending

disaster that are claimed to be unique to modern civilization. The

oceans are dying, the atmosphere is poisoned, the earth itself is

losing its capacity to support life. The reported "hole" in the ozone

layer is the most recent scare. Cancer, generally blamed on

man-made chemicals, is rampant -- so the doomsayers say. Warnings

that in the past came from the pulpit and called for eternal

punishment in the sulfurous fires of hell have been replaced by

equally dire predictions that come from alarmist environmentalists

who call for spending billions of dollars in order to avoid doom from

the sulfurous effluents of industry. The anticipated catastrophes are

our own fault, of course, blamed on the greedy and perfiduous nature

of modern man.



Well, it's all pretty heady stuff, but is it true? As with so many issues

that involve technology, the answer is yes -- and no -- probably rather

more "no" than "yes." What are our real environmental concerns?

Cancer-causing chemicals? Radiation, including radon? Carbon

dioxide, ozone, and the "greenhouse effect"?



Dixy Lee Ray, 1988

----------------------

In above quote, I'd suggest changing "... past few years..." to: decades

.... sigh ........

Maury Siskel         maury@webtexas.com



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