I think acitivism is very necessary especially when our dumb politicians are in full on denial mode
It's extremely difficult to combine.
The trouble is that there are far more people than politicians in denial mode, such as anti fossil activists. There will be no significant substitute for fossil fuel until nuclear gets recognised as the main energy source of the future. And meanwhile nature keeps being turned into industry sites for renewable energy. Only full denial can explain why people think fixing one problem by creating a greater one is a good idea.
it's ridiculous because I've seen fossil fuel advocates from big oil country talk about nuclear energy as if it's a pandemic virus.....when you try to tell people how safe modern nuclear energy is they say "you're the same kind of people that told us this pandemic wouldn't be so bad"- it's such an anti-intellectual response, that it shows that they aren't even going to listen to reason. I've seen many on the environmental side willing to look at nuclear as the way out, but there are some hard heads there also.
We have so much corrupt money in our political system from the fossil fuel industry it's maddening but one huge positive of the pandemic was big oil lost a TON of money that it probably wont ever recover from. Even they admitted they are past their peak.
Have a read here- to see the kinds of awful things they do in conservative states (a place I will never visit).
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/ar ... ry/384316/
Michael Hendryx, a public health researcher at Indiana University who studies the health effects of coal mining in West Virginia, also wasn’t surprised when he heard about the spill. Hendryx co-authored a series of studies that linked a number of troubling health outcomes to the areas with heavy coal mining. His research found that residents of West Virginia’s mining counties were more likely to suffer from kidney disease, obstructive lung diseases, and high blood pressure than their counterparts in non-mining counties. Other studies found higher rates of mortality, cancer, birth defects, total poverty, and child poverty in the areas surrounding mountaintop-removal coal mining sites.
Critics have often dismissed these studies for failing to demonstrate that these negative health effects are caused directly by mining. Hendryx’s most recent study, published last October, established that direct link by showing that the coal dust emitted into the atmosphere at mountaintop mining sites is carcinogenic.
“I entered this area of research with no preconceptions about whether or not I’d find evidence for health problems, but as the evidence has mounted, I am completely convinced that [mountaintop removal mining] is harmful to the health of people who live nearby,” Hendryx says. “It causes air, water and soil pollution in residential communities close to mining. It is not an environment conducive to good health.”
“Because I’m a local, many view me as a Benedict Arnold,” he says. “I should know better because coal put food on my table, they tell me.” He says he’s been shot at numerous times and the brake lines in his truck were cut in what he believes was an attempt on his life. Walk keeps a bulletproof vest in his pick-up truck and his gun is always nearby.
These types of incidents aren’t unprecedented in the area. One of Walk’s mentors, the late Larry Gibson, was profiled in Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and social critic Chris Hedges’ most recent book. After becoming a prominent anti-mountaintop removal activist and testifying at the United Nations, Gibson was the target of an intense intimidation campaign. According to Hedges, Gibson’s cabin was burned down, two of his dogs were shot, trucks routinely tried to run him off the road, and he “endured drive-by shootings.”
Activists aren’t the only critics of the industry who are targeted for speaking out. Hendryx, who taught at West Virginia University before taking his current job at Indiana, says the coal industry has gone after his work with negative editorials in friendly newspapers and by funding its own research to dispute his findings. While at WVU, which accepts millions in donations from the coal industry, Hendryx says he had to tread carefully.