May 2007

Cygnets

Here we go again, Gordon Brown fiddles while the oil and uranium burns

The UK Government's latest energy white paper is due out on Wednesday, and it's no surprise that the spin doctors are out in force pushing nuclear power as a panacea.

We're heading for an electricity crisis within the next decade, reports today's Sunday Times. And not just Britain, as Noel Sheppard informs us in a blistering analysis of Europe's energy woes over at newsbusters.org.

"Nuclear power is the only realistic option" spins today's Observer editorial.

I covered the pro-nuclear hype last July, and not much has changed in the interim, except for the Government becoming more intransigent in its support of nukes. The British media continues to swallow the government's and nuclear industry's propaganda whole. Shame on them.

The Oxford Research group published a paper on Civil Nuclear Power, Security and Global Warming in March. It's worth a read, as is this discussion about Peak Uranium over at the Oil Drum.

There are no such things as panaceas, and anyone who proposes them should be treated with the utmost suspicion.

The reality is that mankind has already surpassed the planet's carrying capacity, and we are currently in overshoot.

Collapse will follow, and we can either follow Sharon Astyk's lead and gracefully powerdown by embracing simple living or choose to bury our heads in the oilsands and carry on as usual. A few energy-saving lightbulbs aren't enough to get us out of this situation, and recycling does not in itself equate to sustainability.

Could you cut your energy consumption by 90%? And if you could, would you?

If we don't, we're well into Derrick Jensen's Endgame (part two of his lecture is here).

Mix n Match Telly

Bluebells

Bluebells, West Malvern (click to enlarge).

Photo Copyright © 2007 Phil Randal

More Wrong Numbers

George Monbiot's on the case yet again with an excellent demolition of British and European CO₂ emissions targets.

"The rich nations seeking to cut climate change have this in common: they lie. You won’t find this statement in the draft of the new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was leaked to the Guardian last week. But as soon as you understand the numbers, the words form before your eyes. The governments making genuine efforts to tackle global warming are using figures they know to be false."

I couldn't have put it better myself.