FactCheck.org Debunks 6 Common Eco Myths
When you want to check whether the rumors flying around about a politician or piece of legislation are true, what’s the first site you visit? Chances are, it’s FactCheck.org, which recently won a well-deserved ‘People’s Choice’ Webby award. In honor of their win, The Daily Green has compiled 6 eco myths recently debunked by FactCheck.org.
1. There’s enough wind power in the Atlantic to offset all the electricity we now get from coal.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made waves when he said the U.S. East Coast was so rich in wind that offshore wind farms could produce as much electricity as every U.S. coal-fired power plant. It sounds great. Coal, which produces roughly half our electricity, is a major source of pollution that causes smog, acid rain, mercury contamination and global warming; wind power causes none of these. Unfortunately, it’s just not true, according to Factcheck.org. “We calculate that converting wind to enough electricity to replace all U.S. coal-fired plants would require building 3,540 offshore wind farms as big as the world’s largest, which is off the coast of Denmark,” Factcheck.org reported. “So far the U.S. has built exactly zero offshore wind farms.”2. Congress is outlawing your backyard organic garden.
A vast campaign, spread via e-mail, Facebook and elsewhere, has tried to convince people that a food safety bill being considered in Congress will wipe out organic farming as we know it, and even possibly make it illegal to have a garden in your backyard. According to Factcheck.org, though, there’s hardly anything to worry about. “We suppose in the grand realm of all that’s possible, or more likely a futuristic B movie, federal bureaucrats could decide that public safety calls for inspections of every backyard garden in the nation, leading everyday citizens to surreptitiously cultivate tomato plants in a closet with a sunlamp, lest they get busted by the cops,” Factcheck.org concluded. “But we kinda doubt it.”3. “Clean coal” is a reality, or at least a possibility.
During the presidential campaign and beyond, as the coal industry and the Waterkeeper Alliance (yay Gloria Reuben!) and other environmental groups have engaged in an epic advertising battle, Factcheck.org has been tamping down enthusiasm for clean coal, which is an expensive concept for removing carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants, not a reality. “There are no commercial ‘clean coal’ plants operating currently in the U.S.,” Factcheck.org reported. “The larger question posed by these dueling ad campaigns is implied rather than stated outright. Can coal can be ‘clean’ in the future? Is ‘clean coal’ a laudable, achievable goal as Obama and the coal miners and electric utilities would have us believe? Or is it a ridiculous oxymoron on par with ‘controlled chaos,’ as Gore and other environmental groups suggest?”
Get the other three myths – which include Congress outlawing second-hand clothing, the EPA taxing cows and a supposed giant oil reserve in the Western U.S. – over at The Daily Green.
Link The Daily Green
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- EPA Cracks Down on Mercury Pollution from Cement Kilns
- 9 of the World’s Most Amazing Wind Farms
- Nuclear Industry Moves to Hijack Obama’s Climate Bill
This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 10:30 am and is filed under Consciousness, Green Living, Health, Science, Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
