Dear Friends--There is one basic flaw in the logic, or shall I say belief system, of Gwyneth Cravens and those like her. It is embodied in her comment that, "If the world wants to keep plugging in big-screen TVs and iPods, it needs a steady source of power." There is no way on Earth that we can continue the current rage for big-screen TVs and iPods and all of the other junk produced by our civilization. We simply don't have the resources to maintain the production of the materials used in these devices, yet alone the energy used in their life cycles--the 24 acres that Jim Merkel refers to over and over again in his presentation/book and of which Annie Leonard makes abundantly clear in her new short video "The Story of Stuff". Other basic flaws in nuclear power are that it <itself> perpetuates the insane consumption of "stuff" (tens or hundreds of millions of dollars of life cycle cost for one plant) and that many of the materials used are going to peak--uranium is probably being the first metal to peak followed by several other key materials used to make reactors. The price of nickel, a key ingredient in stainless steel, is going through the roof as economically viable deposits of nickel are being worked out or countries with these deposits are embroiled in wars and political/economic strife. Besides, I think oil will peak first and the cost of the construction (of anything) will go soar so drastically that the utilities will no longer be able to afford concrete and the expansion of the nuclear industry will grind to a halt. So nuclear power will never work and it's not going to happen. This is a good thing since if we think plastic is forever..... think again about nuclear waste!! Fusion might have a chance, but it too will be too resource intensive to ever be a viable way to make power. Using less of everything and making power and all else on a local scale, along with population reduction, is the best we can do now to save the planet. My $.02. Tom
Tom Shelley 118 E. Court St. Ithaca, NY 14850 607 342-0864 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.myspace.com/99319958 P I thank you for printing this e-mail only if it is necessary _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
