LogFAQs > #953461266

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I'm fairly sure no coal plant or windmill has ever exploded and rendered an area nearly the size of Rhode Island completely radioactive for decades. About the closest you really get to a comparable disaster with non-nuclear plants is Centralia, which a) is a waaay smaller area, and b) is something the average person doesn't even know exists anyway. For fossil fuels in general you could point to stuff like the BP oil spill, but that's very much a "not my problem" sort of vibe for most people, in the same way most ocean dumping (whether trash or chemical) tends to get ignored.

So, actual explosions? No.
But, we can talk about the environmental damage of coal, which is the largest producer of energy right now.
There are plenty of places in west virginia that are straight up abandoned because of fears of it collapsing due to the mines. Pollution is also just as bad. Loss of life of nuclear is incomparable to coal deaths from its just... everything from mining coal to the burning of coal. Every step in coal production is covered in blood and cancer.
The reason why people don't care is because west virginia is full of poor people, and nobody cares about poor people unless it effects them personally.