Monday, December 2, 2013

One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic

Edward Teller: Father of Hydrogen Bomb
and inspiration for Gru in Despicable Me
Particle pollution from power plants is estimated to kill approximately 13,000 people a year.
Toxic Air: Time to Clean Up Coal-fired Power Plants
This quote is from a report by the American Lung Association. Note that it only counts US deaths - worldwide estimates are closer to a half-million. The statistic proves out Stalin's macabre assertion. There must be some sort of statistical fulcrum in our brains that turns our concerns on and off. Maybe this is why Testicular Cancer gets a 10 k while coal the world destroyer hardly gets noticed.

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