Just the mere prospect of it absorbing a wayward neutron, becoming unstable, and bursting into smaller atomic pieces and releasing energy, is enough to make even the most passive environmentalist cringe – even though such reactions require a very specialized environment, not merely being pulled from the ground as a mineral.
Yet, American Rivers, an organization founded in 1973 dedicated to protect and restore “the nation’s rivers and the clean water that sustains people, wildlife, and nature,” is frightened to death of an inert, naturally occurring mass called “uranium” and has found its mere mention of being mined in the Commonwealth of Virginia enough to condemn the Roanoke River to the ignominy of being “endangered.”
Today, American Rivers has bestowed this dubious distinction on the mighty Roanoke because:
“if the Virginia legislature succumbs to industry pressure and fails to uphold its 30-year ban on uranium mining, the health of rivers and communities in the region will be at risk for centuries to come. American Rivers and its partners called on the Virginia legislature to uphold its ban on uranium mining to protect the Roanoke and rivers statewide.”
Really?
So, the Roanoke is not polluted.
It still has great fishing.
It still is a wonderful place for gathering, boating, recreation, and drinking water.
Yet it’s endangered?
Umm, o.k. Makes perfect sense, right?
So, condemn the wheel because cars might crash on them, bikes might get hit by cars, and trains might derail from their tracks? Condemn the wind because windmills might strike birds and airplane turbines might suck birds in? Condemn the sun because if you stay outside for too long, you might get sunburn, cancer, and die?
Quite frankly, I’m not even sure why I am giving this the time of day, if but for its sheer absurdity.
Yet, I know, in my heart of hearts, some mainstream media outlet in Virginia is going to pick up on this information and claim the Roanoke River is endangered. And, sadly, there are going to be people that believe it.
And those that believe it will truly endanger Virginia because they will, in blithesome ignorance, become blind activists, arguing for the protection of their beautiful Roanoke River, and say in letters to the editor, comments on blog posts, and appearances in public forums that uranium mining is dangerous.
This action, then may, in some perverse way, influence our members of the General Assembly (please, Lord, give them sanity).
In the process, these very same people, spurred on by activists like American Rivers, will kill hundreds of jobs, the future of hundreds of children, and the prosperity of a community (should our legislators act on inadequate information). For what? Because a hill in the middle of nowhere had the biggest deposit of clean energy in the world?
The atom is to be respected. The atom can do damage. But unfounded fear of an inert atom?
There comes a time to call stupidity and ignorance what it is.
