The New Mass Extinction: There’s A Pipeline Ready To Burst Under The Great Lakes

[JDPriestly]

110. Profitability involves weighing the possibile losses of an action against the potential

gain. That is a major factor in profitability.

Loss v. gain.

The loss from a spill added to the damage from the carbon dioxide emitted and toxins leaked and spilled by fossil fuels, especially gas and oil in pipelines is so great that profitability is really not a question when considering replacing oil and gas.

The gain in saving the environment from oil spills and emissions and other leaks is unquestionably profitable.

The worst of this is that the pipeline company is probably legally a separate underinsured and underfunded entity from the oil and gas companies that make the big profits from the pipeline. If the pipeline leaks or breaks, if there is a tragic accident, a break in the pipeline for any reason, the cost of remediation of soil, water and the cost of the damage to human health and agriculture would be so great as to be unfathomable.

Profit is earnings less costs. With that pipeline, the potential costs cannot even be estimated. The pipeline needs to be prohibited from running anywhere near an aquifer.

A pipeline broke recently in the Santa Barbara area. In the ocean I think. That also is a tragedy.

We have to detox ourselves and live without oil, gas and coal.

I am reminded of the first paragraphs of a textbook on fossil fuels that was used in one of my daughter's organic chemistry classes: we cannot afford to burn petroleum because it is so useful, so necessary to us for the production of so many vital chemicals, medications and things we need.

Nonetheless, we continue to burn an irreplaceable resource. Our wanton waste of petroleum is shameful.