Toxic Slugde Flooded a Village

[auroraglacialis]

Meanwhile, the toxic spill is not over: "new cracks may cause the wall to collapse or spring additional leaks", evidence hardens that there were signs of leakage before the spill and that these signs show up at numerous sites in Hungary: "Although Interspect found many suspicious sites around the country, 'we're not construction engineers or specialists who could interpret what the picture showed,' he told". And of course there was no plan in case this would happen, so "A police statement issued Tuesday suggested Bakonyi was guilty of negligence, saying he did not prepare an emergency warning and rescue plan to be implemented in case of an incident like the sludge spill" - But just a day later they let the guy go. At least the government took over the company. But why is it that in the end always the government (the people) have to clean up the mess? What was that idea about investment to finance expensive projects - wasnt that supposed to ensure that there are enough finances to clean up such a mess?

EDIT: Oh and they apparently found a nice solution what to do with the millions of tons of such sludge produced each year - mix it with equally toxic waste from oil production to form a "less toxic" sludge:

Bauxite residue, sometimes called "red sludge" or the more euphemistic "red mud," is the waste created by industries that produce aluminum. At present, the residues simply accrue in containment ponds. Worldwide, there are in excess of 200 million tons in these ponds.
"Companies don't voluntarily spend money to neutralize waste unless someone tells them to do it, sadly," Zhu said. "Our technique could be quite expensive. [...]
The combination of bauxite residue and oil-field brine is a novel approach to waste disposal, but this isn't an instance where the combination of two negatives equals a positive. It's more of a less-negative, Zhu says.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1013122603.htm
Now on with replies: /EDIT

Originally Posted by Sight Unseen

I agree with you there. It's not that I don't like humans,[...]I believe there's still hope for us, but it's a faint glimmer.
I would rather be a Na'vi than a human for sure, but that doesn't mean that I've completely shoved humanity out the airlock. I acknowledge the fact that we humans need to change. But some don't. They're content to sit on their arses and rake in the profits at the expense of the planet they're sitting on. Those are the people that need to be changed, or failing that, stopped, at any cost because they are killing the rest of us.

Originally Posted by Tsyal Makto

I've come to realize that the root of the problem is not the masses of society, it is the elite. It is the few extremely rich, and extremely powerful rat bastards that run the world, and their apologists in the mainstream media

Well - we agree on almost everything here then
My opinion of "what can be done" is not clear. I am not clear who or what causes the whole mess and what is the most efficient way to get away from it. Who or what causes it? Is it some few greedy bastards "up there" who exploit the ones below? Certainly. Is it the ones in the middle, the average civilized person who wants do drive a car and have a TV and consumes 60 times as much energy as most people of the world? Certainly. Is it the (corporate) media that propagate that way of life even to the farthest resgions of the world? Certainly. Is it a hierarchy, that allows corporations to be formed, rich people to be rich and the "big men" to be big? Definitely. Is it the culture of civilization itself, agriculture, surpluses, ...? Most likely.
The problem I see is, that even if one manages to convince some of the "people in power" that they need to change, they quickly shift position and other people will take their place, holding the same opinions as before. I once said, it is not people who choose the job they want to do, it is the Job who chooses the people that fit into it. A CEO of a corporation will always act the same - if you kick him out, the next will be the same. if he starts to act kindly, we will loose his job and someone else with the "right attitude" takes over.
This may again be a bit misanthropic, but people usually are not in power over the actions that happen. We like to think that people can change the world, and sometimes they can, but as long as there will be corporations, there will be CEOs that act greedy. As long as there are cars and cheap oil, people will use that and as long as you are encouraged and rewarded for striving for money and power, people will go for that. It would take an immense self-control to not do that ba an immense number of people. Clearly this is not happening.
So what is the conclusion of this - I am not totally sure, just that asking the ones in power nicely to change their ways or tediously convincing the middle class to give up some of their comforts is not going to work.
What I think has more power is to make people aware of the fact that their life is not in fact the best there is. That the cycle of commute, work, eat, watch TV, sleep, commute,... is not "life" - that it is a bad replica of life. Many know this, the poor know it, the ones who work and do not earn a lot know this. Even middle class people know this in their heart. They strive to material wealth to get some happiness back, but thats not working in the long run. So once people are aware of that situation, they need an alternative. A good one, one that gives them more than they would loose by leaving their current way of life behind. If that alternative is not there, people will not change. Some people of course say, that if the system itself is attacked directly by "any means neccesary", people would also have to change. But even the greatest eco-warrior cant take down the system head on. Activists chaining themselves to trees or protesting can slow down some destruction, they can raise awareness, but I dont really see them succeeding - I heard the quote "we need it all" and I think that is true - people setting up new ways of life, showing these ways to people, experimenting with new ways - but also taking the system headon - throw shoes into the cogworks and such - slow the fracking destruction down. If that makes sense.

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