Advocating Against Environmental Criminality

I have to say that I’m quite happy to be part of the Renewable Energy World blog.  They’re in their 11th year, and their community is quite large — the site’s subscriber base numbers in the hundreds of thousands and grows daily.  I’m being quite sincere what I write about their journalistic breadth and excellence; I’m honored to be part of such high-level company. 

Here’s something else I notice:  they’ve kept the whole discussion about renewables quite completely positive; they advocate for clean energy, and against….nothing. 

I see nothing wrong with that; in fact, I see a great deal of value in keeping the whole discussion positive.  But readers here know that I’ve taken a different tack; I’m vehemently against a lot of things (read: corruption), and I’m more than willing to say so — at the admitted expense of turning many people off.  My mother told me when I was a little boy that you can’t please everyone, and she sure nailed that one.  I got an “unsubscribe” yesterday from someone yelling that I had no common sense and that I did not live in the real world.  It comes with the territory. 

Unfortunately for us all, regardless of our political persuasions, the “real world” is chock full of forces that are quite indifferent (at best) to your and my happiness, health, and safety.  Want an example?

Until the (GW) Bush Administration was taken to task for it a  few years ago, the Bureau of Land Management formalized a policy that made cleanup at oil and gas drilling sites purely voluntary for the corporations that drill on public lands. Cleanup at drilling sites, known as “offsite mitigation,” had previously been required. 

Want 50 or so more? Here you are. Take your pick.

Sorry if I’m off the beam re: common sense, but I’m afraid that if no one notices things like this, these forces will bite us in the backside.