a green I mean.
Who wrote this:
Yes, I still loathe the liars who run the nuclear industry. Yes, I would prefer to see the entire sector shut down, if there were harmless alternatives. But there are no ideal solutions. Every energy technology carries a cost; so does the absence of energy technologies. Atomic energy has just been subjected to one of the harshest of possible tests, and the impact on people and the planet has been small. The crisis at Fukushima has converted me to the cause of nuclear power.
Well, you probably knew the answer. George Monbiot. Surprised me a bit. You can read the rest of what he wrote on this subject here. He is right of course, though in part for the wrong reasons. He says that a lot more expansion of renewables like wind and wave is unworkable because of the effects on the landscape. Planning permission. Enraged residents, dontcha know. Nuclear power stations are not pretty, but they are self-contained and not particularly near population centres, even in Japan. There are not many places in the world where major earthquakes take place and which also have nuclear power stations. Armenia is one. You read it here first. Wind turbines are beautiful in my opinion - not everyone agrees with me - in French even their name is beautiful - "les aeoliennes". These issues are not simple, We all supported the miners, remember? Whose product trashed the environment - I am just old enough to remember the London smog - and was utterly unsustainable. And kept us warm.
Unexpected things have been happening lately. The pro-Saddam Guardianista anti-interventionists came out in large numbers for intervention in Libya; even Yabbers (Alibhai-Brown) wasn't sure what she thought about it, leaving only the Filth itself and its racist Comment is Free and a few totalitarian Trots to be against. Prominent greens come out for nuclear power. What next? George Galloway for a democratic Israel? Daniel Hannan for a federalist future?
2 comments:
I agree wholeheartedly re your love of wind turbines as more than just a source of renewable energy. The Green Park statistics however changed my mind in that a cap should be placed upon each one of £100k worth of annual subsidies so as to deter the erection of said turbines where the wind don’t blow.
The Greens oppose anything and everything not conceived by the love child of an Inuit couple wearing an organic, fair trade hair shirt yet conveniently seem to ignore the fact that UK plc is losing 12 gigawatts of energy generation over the next few years which could not be replaced by the construction of any form of power generation in that time.
A dislike or green opposition to nuclear generated power is understandable however give it a few years and that’s exactly what we’ll be using imported from our French chums.
There are three wind turbines (love the French name, by the way!) on the pass from Scalloway to Lerwick. They are one of the most beautiful public sculptures I have ever seen - much better than the (too rigid) Angel of the North.
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