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Archive for “Energy” category
Showing results 311 - 315 of 360 for the category: Energy.
4 May 2006
At James Lovelock’s recent talk I attended at Dartington, he was asked by the enraged woman in front of me how he could possibly justify nuclear power in the light of what happened at Chernobyl. She worked with children from the area, and felt he had downplayed the scale of what happened there. He replied rather glibly that only 70 people had died there, and they were mostly the firemen and emergency services people who attended the fire, but that no-one else had died that could be directly linked to the disaster. His point was that far more people died in London in the 1950s from inhaling coal fumes and other pollutants, and that the C02 from burning fossil fuels could ultimately kill us all. This appalling dismissal of extensive human misery has recently been challenged.
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3 May 2006
My first reason why nuclear power is a non-response to peak oil is that it will take the steam out of the profound and far-reaching renewables revolution which is the only thing that will actually get us through peak oil. In the long run, we need to restructure society so that it becomes more local, with local food production, decentralised energy grids and so on, as has long been argued at **Transition Culture** . This is the ONLY thing that will pull us through. Nuclear power offers the illusion that “something is being done”, and takes the steam and the necessary funding out of the urgency to start the programme of profound change needed.
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2 May 2006
An article in The Times last week looked at the fact that coal is starting to be taken seriously again as an energy source now that oil prices are so high. It quoted Gerry Spindler, UK Coal’s chief executive as saying “coal is the rich, drunken uncle at the family party. No one wants it there, but no one is going to ask it to leave because it is going to pay for the party.” If coal is the drunken, rich uncle, nuclear power is an over-exuberant Count Dracula. Every time he is safely dispatched with a stout stake throught the heart, he somehow manages to come back again, and the villagers have to once again start fashioning a new and hopefully sharper stake in order to sort him out for what they hope will be the final time.
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28 Apr 2006
**Transition Culture** is delighted to be able to present the UK premiere of The Community Solution’s new film ‘The Power of Community’, at Totnes Methodist Hall on **Thursday May 25th at 8pm**. The explores the impacts of peak oil on Cuba and how the country adapted and adjusted to it. It is the perfect antidote to the End of Suburbia, drawing out the lessons from this amazing societal transition which we in the West will have to start to learn very soon. It is a wonderful and inspirational film and is one not to be missed.
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28 Apr 2006
Thirty people gathered at Dublin’s Cultivate Centre on April 20th for a World Cafe facilitated event called ‘Skilling Up for Powerdown’. The day was part of the Convergence Festival “Learning to Live with Less Fossil Fuels”, and was billed as “a community energy descent planning conference”, the first such event ever. The day was ably facilitated by Tara and Micheal from Second Nature, and was very productive, raising many ideas and insights which I will touch on in forthcoming posts.
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At James Lovelock’s recent talk I attended at Dartington, he was asked by the enraged woman in front of me how he could possibly justify nuclear power in the light of what happened at Chernobyl. She worked with children from the area, and felt he had downplayed the scale of what happened there. He replied rather glibly that only 70 people had died there, and they were mostly the firemen and emergency services people who attended the fire, but that no-one else had died that could be directly linked to the disaster. His point was that far more people died in London in the 1950s from inhaling coal fumes and other pollutants, and that the C02 from burning fossil fuels could ultimately kill us all. This appalling dismissal of extensive human misery has recently been challenged.
