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Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Sunday, July 18, 2010

Beyond the Gulf Oil Spill: Five Ongoing Ecological Disasters With No End In Sight

oil pipeline burning niger delta nigeria 
photo
A burning oil spill in the Niger Delta.
Living some 6,000 miles away from the Gulf of Mexico, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that the oil spill often seems like an abstraction to me. A big, big abstraction, but still. Pictures of oil-covered pelicans and other heart-tugging images occasionally appear in the Turkish press, but generally, people here -- like people anywhere -- are more concerned about domestic issues, of which we have plenty. And I know that when I was living in the United States, the Turkish mining disasters that so compel me now would have seemed equally remote.
That's why an article on "The World's Ongoing Ecological Disasters" -- some of which make the BP spill pale in comparison -- offered an especially striking reminder that there are ecosystems and people suffering outside the eye of the nightly news.
Article continues: Beyond the Gulf Oil Spill: Five Ongoing Ecological Disasters With No End In Sight

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