Nuclear power, while not the long term answer, is the bridge to a sustainable energy future and is in my opinion, the only way to meet our needs without resorting to the overuse of coal which will only serve to cook our planet. We are 30 years post Natural Gas Peak, are currently at Peak Oil and our coal reserves, while vast, are greatly overstated. Transitioning to a non-fossil fuel world will take a lot of time, time that we don't have. Had we started 30 years ago we might just have made it but we didn't and now the shit is hitting the fan. There are a lot of promising new technologies which might one day create a sustainable energy world but right now, it just isn't so. Thus the need for a bridge to the future. That bridge is made of uranium and the time to build it is now.
In addition, several other steps can be taken to help ease the transition from oil, natural gas and coal. We need a massive ramp up of wind, solar, tidal and geothermal to supplement any new nuclear power. We need to cut our reliance on personal transportation and focus instead on mass transit, building a rail network that we can be proud of and development that makes sense, not the suburban hell we've come accustomed to. Times running out and I'm not sure that we can pull this off but we have to have hope and so I think we need to rethink our fear of nuclear power. It's either that or learn to read in the dark. Personally, I live having the lights on and if they need someplace to build a nuclear plant, put the damn thing in my backyard, as long as the lights stay on.
4 comments:
I couldn't agree more on the nukes. Personally, neither candidate inspires me, so I plan to flip a coin in the voting booth.
By the way, you don't ever have to "promise to shut up" on my blog. I like people who have opinions even if I disagree.
I'm a risk-taker. If there were no other alternatives, I'd reluctantly embrace some additional nukes EXCEPT for the waste issue.
I can't in good conscience leave behind something that generations after me will have to live with.
I don't need lights on that badly. In fact I think it would do us good to swallow our pride for a few decades and learn to live in the dark, by candlelight in the evenings if necessary, like my mother's parents did.
We have become far too spoiled by excessive energy use and unnecessary waste.
I was speaking to one of my colleagues at work today about water and she said her parents collect rainwater for their basic household needs. During the droughts, they will actually put a bucket under the window unit a/c to collect any liquid drippings.
That's the direction we are going in many ways, not just energy, and I say it's about fucking time.
Waste sucks.
I agree that we need to live more simply. I've just read about a growing movement to downsize our lives. The gist of the story is, they challenge you to get rid of things that you own and try to get by on 100 items. I don't know if I could do that but I'm thinking about going through the house and gathering up what I don't need or use and either having a yard sale or donating it to charity.
We're in for a rough go of things soon. I'm nervous about what is going to happen but optimstic at the same time. We can be pretty amazing creatures when we want to and I hope we rise to the challenge again.
While I don't collect my rainwater per se, I do have rain gardens that collect it from my gutters and it gets absorbed by the plants and the rest soaks into the groudnwater instead of the sewers. It's pretty neat actually. I've switched out all of my lights, keep my appliances off when not in use and I drive a very fuel efficient vehicle. I'm trying to find as many ways to reduce my footprint and collective energy use. We all need to do our part.
Thanks for letting me spout off and if we all agreed with one another, it would be a pretty boring world, wouldn't it?
i've been researching electric motorcycles...
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