This is a few months old now, but frankly, the content is ancient. Why is it mission critical when it’s in our own backyard, but business as usual elsewhere?

Nigeria is in my top five place to report from. Top five. In fact, it might even occupy position number one.

The explosion is said to have been cause by a sudden bubble of methane gas. Impossible to predict. But certainly a probable outcome of drilling. Reason should dictate that such an explosion would cause the oil tanker to sink. And that sealing a hole in the ocean floor would be challenging at best, and impossible at worst. Reality is dictating the worst.

Here’s what I don’t get; We’re all born with common sense. We know that error happens. We know what the fall out of possible error is. And yet our governments continue to invest in unsustainable energy sources. What if this had been a nuclear tailing pond, which must stand undisturbed for 100,000 years to neutralize the effects?

Errors happen. Maybe it’s time we start accounting for that in initial plans.

Seed magazine has an interesting piece of the debate between coal and nuclear energy. While balancing energy demands and environmental concerns is a challenge, I personally remain firmly against the proliferation of nuclear energy.  You can read more about why in the article I wrote for last month’s issue of This Magazine.