What will it take for us

[oldandhappy]

to be concerned about safety -- for oil trains, for air pollution, for our future water supplies. Why oh why are we not in revolt??!!

Edit. Really worried about the oil train fire out of Galena and wrote this without saying that. Sorry.

[elleng]

1. OK. Was thinking of doing an OP: What will it take to get us out of oil,

but I'm afraid of the answer.

Thanks.

[oldandhappy]

2. Please do the OP.

I would like to see what you do with it. I am afraid the oil barons will never release their grip on the oil economy. Which makes any peaceful transition impossible. I would like to feel more hopeful! The fracking thing terrifies me. Water is so critical to our lives. It seems we have viable options in solar and wind power. And...what is good for the earth may not be good for the pocketbooks of the barons. Ahso, smile.

[elleng]

3. I'm not at all hopeful,

fracking terrifies me too. Will think about it.

[marym625]

5. Please do it

I am on a break from posting on DU. So sick of the animosity toward each other, mostly coming from one side and causing really good people to leave.

But this is too important. I hope you post it and in GD so it is seen by everyone.

[2naSalit]

4. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when...

I spent my honeymoon in Galena. It's such a cool place, the whole town is like a museum with a building and construction code that requires everything to end up looking like the rest of the buildings to maintain the "period" aesthetic... from the mid 1800s. Ulysses S. Grant's retirement home is there. Galena was a thriving "customs" city before Chicago was heavily settled... Galena is located along the Galena River, they have flood gates to protect the lower levels of town, and was in its heyday a major source of lead. It was mined and melted then dropped from specially designed towers to make lead balls for guns and cannons. There was also a noted potter there, John Dowling, who made interesting functional wares but had a secret recipe for his glazes... that stuff is worth a lot now. I have two small crockery pieces that may actually be made by him... probably the most valuable possessions I own.

It would really suck if something bad happened to the town, much of the old section is in the national register of historic places.

This is bound to happen again and in a more heavily populated place eventually.

[oldandhappy]

6. Thanks

I did not know that about Galena. Sounds charming.

[2naSalit]

7. It is a very historic and beautiful place

with a wildlife refuge nearby which is where this train wreck happened. RMS had an informative report with video last night. It was a local reporter who actually said anything about the wildlife refuge and that a train with ethanol crashed not far from there a week or so ago.

But The town of Galena is well worth a visit for anyone who is interested. It appears to have been similar to New Orleans back in the late 1700s into early mid-1800s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galena,_Illinois