Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Mushroom time again

Kept in the dark. Fed... well, in the cause of coming to a view, not much of use.

I remain dubious about nuclear for a variety of reasons, articulated before, but mainly for the ongoing lack of guarantees for what happens 'down the road'. Space 1999 and all that.

But I do concede that, if on the other hand we are facing more immediate peril from the consequences of our energy addictions currently met by burning fossil fuels, with growing populations and recovering economies we are in between a rock an a hard place.

I am not really in the mood, or of a mind to go into all that throws up here, but it is complex, and I if that were not enough of a worry given the evident competencies of our current 'leaderships', the selfish, careerist, money-driven short-termism shown so far suggests that some things are often seen as just alternatives, rather than as part of a time-buying strategy on the road to stability.

However, or maybe because of this, this worries me...

Pro-nuclear Green candidate faces axe

And it worries me because of the politics. We are in an era of either/or, black and white, all or nothing. Nuance is not an option. Especially in the politico-media establishment.

My frustrations with the, in theory 'democratic' political process is now almost total. I have no faith that anything I do via my MP matters any more. And much of this is because too often I see him 'told' how to vote for party reasons rather than any hint of representing my views, or what he sees as the good of the county and country he represents.

Now I can see how the views of these individuals can clash with that of the party, and indeed the manifesto it needs to stand behind in campaigning, but there strikes me as something worrying about that last phrase: “We will be taking appropriate measures.”

The THREE E's, again?

An interesting piece that at first blush is more concerned with my 'Two E' dilemma, namely economics 'vs.' environment.

However, a third is worked in, namely electricity. With a hue of greencloaking around too, perhaps.

Don’t let’s fall for all these ‘green’ credentials

What is interesting is how little is devoted to enviROI still. Even by the author. I have lost count of the number of puff pieces with some mic-toting moppet gushing that these things do not create emissions.

Personally I think there is great merit in pursuing electricity as a power option for vehicles. But it has to be done in concert with a realisation, and acceptance that until the method of electricity generation is developed in complement, they can hardly be deemed to be 'green'. 'Greener', perhaps, at least in some aspects, such as localised pollution (though it still ends up in the air elsewhere), hence the value even now in certain applications. Just... so long it is not just to tick a box somewhere that has little bearing on my kids' futures and more on meeting targets, propping up constituency votes, delivering to lobbyists or scoring a bonus.

Plus, as the comments show, there is also this rather unseemly, and uncritical rush to support anything that slaps a green sticker on it. I watch the BBC report on this, and came away thinking it a tad churlish to turn them down.

Now I read the fuller facts, and that there are already niche players well entrenched to tackle such markets as can be gained, there is different picture emerging. Especially to me as a taxpayer, and environmentally-concerned one at that.