When did oil, nuclear power, gas and coal become more important than the lives and well being of people and the planet? It seems every day now there is another accident caused by incompetent, thoughtless, greedy corporations who are more interested in the bottom line than in their fellow man’s well being. Or is it more than that? Could it be our greed and consumption that is causing these accidents?

For all the debate about whether offshore oil drilling in particular is too risky, the larger truth is simple: we are digging deeper oil wells and deeper mines because we have used almost all the readily available fossil fuels. Going after this harder-to-reach energy is riskier, for the environment and for the workers.

I remember growing up in town where everyone worked in ‘the mill’. Even then I recognized that money was more important than people. Yes, they were paid well but at what cost? Lost limbs, deafness and a short life span were common place but they all had a truck, a car, a boat, a camp and plenty of money to spend.

Predictions have been made that what we are facing now was bound to happen, just as terrorism was predicted and no one listened. Experts warned of impending terrorist acts but it all fell on deaf ears, just as the warnings of polluting the earth and poisoning our ecosystem fell on deaf ears. I am not sure anyone is really listening even now.

There is a trend that you may have noticed lately due to our increased use of fossil fuels. The more we use, the more accidents happen.

What constitute a severe accident?

An accident is severe, when at least one of the following consequences occurs:

5 or more fatalities

10 or more injuries

200 or more evacuations

far-reaching ban on the consumption of food

release of at least 10000 tons of hydrocarbons

cleanup of a land or water surface of 25 km2 or more

economic damages of at least 5 million USD

“Up to 10,000 miners die every year in Chinese coal mines. Our use of oil costs hundreds to thousands of human lives yearly through accidents. The collapse of two hydro storage dams in 1975 caused the death of 26000 people in China. And Chernobyl not only caused 31 immediate fatalities, but also many future latent fatalities. Insurance companies continue to pay high monetary damages, but there remain other damages to humanity and nature which no one pays.” Energie-Spiegal

April 2010 Methane explosion in West Virginia 25 miners killed

April 2010 Deepwater Horizon (BP oil rig) explodes and sinks with the oil still leaking to this day 11 killed

June 2010 Natural gas line in Texas erupted killing one

There is always a chance of accidents occurring. Energy companies may have neglected safety precautions that could have prevented these tragic events. More important than their neglect is our consumption of energy.

We, the consumers may be the ones that need to carry the burden of blame. We use more energy than countries with similar climates such as Japan, France, Germany and Australia and twice as much per capita as the United Kingdom.

The only countries that use more than we do on a per capita basis are small, oil-rich, deserts like Qatar and Bahrain. Canada, which is considerably colder, less densely populated, and also has such a high footprint in part because it has a lot of energy-intensive extraction industries.

Subsidies for homeownership increase the opportunity for living in the suburb and driving everywhere. The Interstate Highway System has caused a massive imbalance between funding for roads and mass transit, leaving no option for those who have no access to public transportation.

It is time to change American policy in favor of comprehensive energy reform and rethink our consumption. The accidental deaths of American energy company workers can not only be blamed on the corporations. We need to accept our (the consumer) responsibility in contributing to their deaths and injuries. Please support alternative forms of energy.