Relative Danger of Energy Sources
Oil
1. How many will die worldwide this decade from drilling, transporting,
and
refining oil?
< 100 100 –
1,000 1,000
– 10,000 10,000 -
100,000 > 100,000
- Several hundred, or more than 1,000
In the last decade, in addition to smaller events, several hundred died
in Nigeria in 2006, and more than 500 (estimates range up to 1,500)
died in 1998 in Warri,
Nigeria from an oil pipe leak and fire. Six hundred died in 1994 and
1995 in two South Korean accidents. Almost 600 died in Egypt in 1994
when lightning hit a fuel depot. (See The Hazards of
Using Energy.) Oil is also a tool of conflict, as in Colombia,
where
struggles over oil in Colombia's violent internal conflict increases
the death toll and environmental destruction.
In the US, there have been a number of oil refinery accidents. Fifteen
workers died, and 100 were injured, in Texas City, TX, in 2003, the
largest accident among many: eighty
US refinery workers died over the last decade or so.
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