As a dedicated flaneur, I try to avoid reacting to bad news, but the UK's misguided, shortsighted and potentially lethal decision to build more nuclear power stations is taking me dangerously near meltdown.
Four Reasons Why Nuclear Power Is Stupid 1. Nuclear waste is a dreadful poison, inimical to all forms of life and impossible to control.
2. There is no guaranteed, failsafe way of disposing of nuclear waste. None. Just doesn't exist. Even in Britain, we have earthquakes, and we certainly have lots of underground water. It doesn't matter how deep you bury it, or in what container, it's inevitably, predictably impossible to prevent leakage and the consequent immense, lasting damage to biology.
3. The nuclear power process is fraught with pollution potential. Just making the stuff creates a million hazards. Where there are humans, there are errors.
4. The nuclear power process is fraught with security issues. I don't need to explain this one, do I, with
eastern Europe awash with people selling enriched uranium. Nuclear power = bombs.
Building new nuclear power stations is going to seriously affect our environment, not just of Britain, but in all probability the entire north western region of Europe, and possibly even wider geographically. Beyond that, we are looking at pollution issues which will outlast current society by multiple thousands of years. Cracks in society, wholesale movement of populations due to climate change, the ending of entire nations, and the draining away of funding - all of these things are
going to happen, it's just a question of when.
With our future so completely unknowable, for politicians to be convinced of their rectitude in making this blind and idiotic choice shows me how barren our leadership has become. While this is something I have long suspected in the UK, with misguided plans for ID cards, and the national travesties of corruption in all its forms playing out before us, I now know that I cannot remain here. Or else, I cannot remain silent, save for creating entertainment for the temporary distraction of the privileged few.
Did I ever tell the story of how my middle name became Radioactive? To paraphrase Blair, this is no time for soundbites. I feel the heavy, glowing hand of Homer Simpson upon my shoulder...
Labels: idiocy, nuclear, pollution, radioactivity, UK
I wasn't totally surprised that Blog of Funk was featured - after all, I write this blog with some attention to quality, and have reasonably consistent readership - but pleasant it truly was to witness at least one small moment, albeit on a rather less-well-known-than-it-deserves late night radio programme, which bucked the trend of the almost entirely editorially pro-government reporting that characterised the rest of the BBC's coverage of the nuclear subject. Thank you that man for putting the argument to a larger audience.
