Poll Closed: Which is More Dangerous: Nuclear Power or Fossil Fuel Power? VIEW RESULTS

(EnviroNews Polls) — In the catastrophic 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in Ukraine, only four percent of what could have been released, actually was released — and that accident has caused substantial damage to the environment and human health, both told and untold. On the flip side of the coin, fossil fuels have their own problems: the BP oil spill wasn’t pretty, and neither are the deaths of countless people from air and water pollution from the combustion of coal, oil and gas — and that’s in addition to burning down Earth’s climate at what many scientists say is an alarming pace.

Hot blended nuclear waste and spent fuel continue to pile up on-site at nuclear power plants, while abandoned uranium mines sit in ruin, off-gassing radon, blowing around radioactive dust and leaching off lethal tailings. Simultaneously, fracking penetrates the backyards of people around the world, while the development of Canada’s Alberta tar sands has turned a pristine swath of Boreal Forest wilderness the size of Florida, into an oozing, gooey wasteland resembling the likes of Mordor from Lord of the Rings’ Middle Earth.

Fukushima continues to pump plutonium-tainted water into the Pacific every single day, while one gas leak at Porter Ranch, California in 2015, spewed off the greenhouse gas equivalency of what would be emitted by tens of millions of automobiles — and so forth and so on. You get the point.

While many in the climate movement argue global warming is going beyond critical, and even that nuclear power is a must-have “solution” in the climate crisis, nuclear opponents argue a behemoth accident, either from weapons, a power plant, or a waste repository, could end life on earth as we know it in the blink of an eye.

What seems very obvious is neither nuclear power nor fossil fuel power are without major problems and risks. Therefore, we put it to you, our readers and viewers, to decide: Overall, which is the more dangerous form of energy: nuclear power or fossil fuel power? Please vote via Twitter or Facebook in the polls just below.