Tuesday, June 01, 2010

A stunning realization ... just don't do it!

I agree with Rand Paul about something. The Republican Senatorial candidate from Kentucky and notorious Civil Rights Act skeptic responded to the Massey coal mine explosion and the BP Gulf oil gusher with the comment:

... sometimes accidents happen.

Right he is. And when you have no way of overcoming or even mitigating the results of an accident, you probably simply should not do any activity that you know might lead to an accident. That seems a smart prudential standard to adopt.

Under that standard, I can think of a couple of activities we would be smart to avoid: deep water oil drilling and nuclear power development.

What else do we do that might very well result in accidents from which human society and the natural world suffer irreparable harm? Leave suggestions in comments.

2 comments:

janinsanfran said...

Then there's going to war, of course. Lots of accidents in that. Shouldn't do it unless, at minimum, there's are very good reason. Maybe shouldn't do it at all?

Nell said...

He honestly said that, in Kentucky, about the mine disaster?