[Jason Heppenstall]

Illargi – why waste time reading the UK press? I know it’s diverting, but there are better ways to spend your time that don’t have you howling at the computer screen. Saying that, I’m also guilty – it’s like watching a slow motion car crash, although in this case I’m one of the passengers.

The Guardian is just as crazy as the Telegraph. I should know, I used to write for the former as their correspondent in Denmark. I emailed a good few requests to editors to write about peak oil, collapse etc – and was even willing to do it for no money on their unpaid blogs section (‘Comment is free’ haha – yes indeed). The message I always got back was ‘not interested’. Apparently writing about energy in any other way than stating over and over that it is ‘abundant’ is up there with Elvis sightings, according to the news editor.

So I gave up.

Incidentally, no doubt you saw the news about closing shipyards in Portsmouth and Glasgow today? Through all the headlines are about lost jobs the first thing that crossed my mind is ‘They’re trying to save energy’. Knock a couple of giant steel-smelting shipyards on the head, and there a bit of an energy saving for a country that is going down the drain singing ‘Rule Britannia’.

ps. You missed the Guardian article yesterday talking about immigrants wanting a share of the UK ‘bonanza’.

[Jason Heppenstall]

Ilargi – as a UK resident I’m all too aware of the madness of our ‘leaders’ of late – especially with regard to energy.

Following the nuclear decision and Monbiot’s subsequent article, I engaged him in a bit of online discussion. Here’s how it went:

Me: No George, we do not need nuclear power. What we need to do is get used to the idea of having some locally appropriate generation rather than a massive inefficient grid powered by a few lumbering power stations – nuclear or not.
There is no safe way to deal with nuclear waste, and it will be around for several hundred thousand years. I can’t think of a more lethal and poisonous gift to leave our descendants just for the sake of a few years of cheap electricity.

GM: This is something I don’t get. The mercury etc from coal plants has an infinite half life. It will be around for ever. So why are we concerned only about toxins with half lives?
Genuine question.

Me: I am also concerned with that. I am not getting into the argument of nuclear vs coal. I’m saying we have to abandon BOTH.

In any case, due to a peaking of available resources for both, neither will be a viable proposition in just a few decades. Put simply, we will have to get used to living with less. Politically unacceptable you say? Yes, but the laws of physics and basic geology don’t care much for humankind’s ambitions.
It’s a dangerous game to insist that a potentially deadly technology is necessary, because then you are ruling out much safer alternatives.

Edward Rice (joins conversation): It astonishes me to see people fretting about continuing leaks at Fukushima, which present a tiny health risk even to the Japanese
Risky Repair of Fukushima Could Spill 15,000 Times the Radiation of Hiroshima, Create 85 Chernobyls
”… spent fuel rods (and about 200 “fully loaded” unspent rods — remember that “reactor 4 had been de-fueled” prior to the accident) are stored in a water-containing chamber high off the ground in a crumbling room and building without a roof.”
Yes, nothing to worry about there.

GM: Blimey, the complete cobblers people will dredge up rather than have a reasoned debate about nuclear power. What is it about this subject that a. attracts such a formidable array of junk science and b. encourages so many people to repeat it? Is there some kind of global competition to see who can come up with the craziest apocalyptic scenario?

I have to conclude that George Monbiot is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Anyway I penned this short diatribe the other day in a fit of angst – after all, some of us actually have to live here:

Ruled by Goons – https://22billionenergyslaves.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/ruled-by-goons.html

[Jason Heppenstall]

Those are all good reasons to get out of any pension fund while you can – and that’s exactly what I did. The psychological pressure to conform can be quite overbearing when confronted with pensions advisors, but my advice is to just say no.

https://22billionenergyslaves.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/in-year-2043.html

Of course, that leads to the questions of what you do without a pension. There are no easy answers to that one!

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