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Both lightning and electricity from the power grid ("electricity") injure and kill people. We have more "control" over electricity, but it still causes property loss through damage due to degradation of wiring or to improper workmanship. Loss due to fire caused by lightning strikes runs in the many millions of dollars every year when we consider the costs of wildfires and their supression. Let's look at a couple of statistics. Lightning kills a bit under a hundred people every year. There are four to five times that many deaths due to household electrocution. Industrial electrocutions add run about the same, so for some one hundred deaths due to lightning, roughly ten times that many are due to electocution from "electricity" in households or industrial settings - from the power grid. As regards lethality, electricity from the power grid is far more dangerous. We are "exposed" to it every day. Almost none of us isn't. And relatively few of us are exposed to lightning - except for those who live in Florida. But as regards electricity, there is a "harsh reality" associated with it - we can't "live" without it. We've determined it has far too high a cost-benefit ratio, so don't look for us to "cut back" on things associated with the electrical power distribution grid.

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Why is an electrical storm dangerous?

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Did scientist agree with Benjamin Franklin about electricity is lightning?

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Is positive lightning more dangerous than negative lightning?

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