Some Scary Figures

Sometimes I read things that scare me. The September 2002 National Geographic, including map insert, is something everyone should read. It is a wake up call. Some figures I found in there:

"The amount of water impounded behind dams has measurably affected the speed at which Earth spins."
My reaction--we are messing with big things here, people.

"A veritable river of oil--5,000 cubic feet--flows out of wells every second."
My reaction: As a hydrologist, I know 5,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water is a very large flow. If civilization as we know it on this planet depended on 5,000 cfs of water that came from an aquifer that wasn't being recharged, I would be very worried. Since oil is pretty much fossilized dinosaurs, and I don't see any dinosaurs around, I know it isn't being recharged--definitely not at 5,000 cfs. What makes it even worse is that 2/3 of this oil is in the Persian Gulf area, where we don't really have a lot of friends. Diving headlong into oblivion, yes we are, and we've got somebody like George W. Bush at the helm pressing on the gas...

"This year the world's some 440 commercial nuclear reactors will create more than 11,000 tons of radioactive spent fuel."
My reaction--Why are we making so much of something that is toxic and dangerous and deadly forever? There are alternatives. We don't need to do this.