On a recent discussion dfhunter said that this blog covers "politics + real world waste by halfwits/scamsters". This made me wonder why I'd never read anything here except about waste due to wind farms and solar farms.

This must be an oversight as a blog with an interest in real world waste would surely get to know about the sort of waste that kills eleven people and spreads half a million tonnes of crude oil over the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe the people involved in the Gulf weren't halfwits or scamsters, in which case we could ignore it as an unfortunate incident. Or maybe waste like what happened in the Gulf of Mexico and continues to happen around the world has been covered in detail, in which case I'm going to very embarrassed.

But if not, lets make a collection here of some of the big ones. It could be interesting.

Deepwater Horizon has to be the first of course as it was such a massive spill and killed so many people. Was it halfwits who caused it, scamsters or incompetents, safety skimpers or penny pinchers? Did the companies follow all of the rules spend lavishly on safety and precautions? Or did they omit key equipment and tests to speed up development and save a buck? I don't know but it turned out rather expensive for BP of course...

You obviously don't read it much. Just today the Bishop reported

Nov 5, 2014
Energy: gas
Barton Moss comes up trumps
IGas has just told investors about the results of its exploratory drilling at Barton Moss outside Manchester and it looks like excellent news:

and there are always little articles sniping at renewables or spreading alarm about the grid or claiming misconduct or misbehaviour in renewables businesses. Just imagine if there was a solar or wind spill that polluted the coast or a river; the Bishop would have a field day. Yet when BP covers the Gulf in oil? Not a peep.

Now I'm sure if it had been biogas or hydrogen we'd have heard about it here. But since it was ordinary Russian gas, news of an explosion a few weeks back that killed one, injured 11, damaged 25 homes and buildings and caused several fires, according to the Mail is not really news at all. Just a commonplace occurrence.

Man dies urinating on subway's third rail. Perhaps Raff thinks that is an evil to be chalked up against fossil fuels. Perhaps we should ban electricity.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2358398/Matthew-Zeno-Man-dies-electrocution-urinating-subways-rail.html

michael hart

What about those road deaths in fossil fueled motor vehicles, should we count them?

Perhaps we could start a list of things that were much better pre-fossil fuel? I'll give you a couple for starters

Sailing ships - I don't recall any problems with them
Horses for agriculture - productivity of rhubarb and roses was never a problem back then.

No coverage yet by the Bishop on the vote in Denton, Texas to ban fracking inside the city limits (where there has already been significant fracking activity). I'm sure he'll have an article on it soon, as he doubtless would if the ban had been on solar panels. Here's a few reasons why they objected to fracking that I'm sure the Bishop will be telling everyone about soon.

I just came across the figure of half a million deaths annually in China from air pollution. Sadly it is behind a paywall.

Another astounding figure is that of perhaps 12,000 premature deaths from the 1952 London Smog event.

Boy am I glad western governments legislated to prevent this sort of thing. Regulation? Who can do without it, eh?

You're absolutely right Raff, oil, gas, etc have issues, and the moment we stop using fossil fuels we should stop digging them up/drilling and moving them about. Did you know how much wildlife is killed by agriculture? Surely we should stop eating to save the planet? No? Life is always about compromises. Fossil fuels have big downsides to match their big advantages. What's new about that?

In fact, why not put your concerns into action. May I suggest you make up a sandwich board with your points and stand outside a petrol station imploring people to boycott fuel? You're wasting you time trying to sway us deniers (we've got those oil cheques to think about) but I'm sure the rest of the population would be interested. Take pictures, we'd be interested how you get on.