Sound familiar? Well, if you’ve been following my rant on nuclear power you’ll remember my first podcast on the subject concerning a paper written by researcher Jesse Ausubel, Nuclear Energy is Clean; Renewables Damage the Ecology , condemning renewables and praising nuclear energy.
Before continuing, once again I’ve produced a podcast on this subject, so if you don’t have time to read, tune in here: gaia.mp3
Now, 86 year old Dr. James Lovelock, pictured at the left, has written a book, The Revenge of Gaia (Penguin Books 2006), where he makes no bones about it – nuclear energy can save humanity, and “there is no sensible alternative to nuclear power if we are to sustain humanity,” a quote taken from the pages of the World Nuclear Association‘s web pages.
Mr. Lovelock’s career as an environmentalist and scientist is without question. You can read all about him on his website. Gaia, in case hadn’t heard the term, refers to a hypothesis formulated by Dr. Lovelock in the 1960′s. Essentially, living and nonliving parts of the earth have a regulatory effect on the Earth’s environment.
What caught my eye today as I was rolling through countless websites was a blog written by James A. Finch, and I just had to comment, with all due respect to Mr. Finch and his opinion.
In his article, Mr. Finch claims environmentalists won’t read the book, and quite possibly, their bosses will ban them from reading it. And should they sneak out and get a copy, according to Mr. Finch, they may very well become lobbyists for the nuclear cause. That is, of course, if they bathe, shave and spiff up a bit.
This is good stuff, and it gets better. In a forward by the “Editor” of “Blowing Our Tax Dollars on Wind Farms” and I’ll just quote him, ”
“Editor:
Mr. Lovelock seems to love nuclear and hate wind farms. The “Green Movement” loves wind and hates nukes. Odd. The “Green Movement” is based on the theory of Gaia by Mr. Lovelock.Gaia is like a religion to the “Greens”. I appreciate Mr. Lovelock’s concern for the planet and I share that concern with him. According to Mr. Lovelock, just about everything the “Greens” are trying to shove down our collective throats, he disagrees with. The problem with the Greens is that their agenda is quite different to that of Mr. Lovelock. Al Gore, Maurice Strong, David Suzuki, Ted Turner and all the other leaders of the “Green Movement” are using Gaia to push for control, power and money under the guise of sustainability. The “Green Movement” is a fraud. They should be honest, they are about globalization or,”One World Order” controlled by the UN or a similar body.
Realistically they should be tried for treason against their respective countries”.alternative energy – “James Lovelock’s Latest Book Trashes Renewables, Endorses Nuclear Energy’
Are we having fun yet? OK, getting back to Mr. Finch and his comments. He points out certain areas of the book, like Chapter Five, “Sources of Energy.” Mr. Fitch said the good Dr. “concisely and cogently answers every silly ‘theory’ about renewable energy sources hyped by the ‘green’ movement.”
Then we travel on to the exact same type of trashing stated by Mr Ausubel in his paper, taking each renewable energy source and thoroughly discounting it.
In the book, Finch says Lovelock addresses Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and other events over the past half-century, then says if you ever wondered about radiation and cancer, well Dr. Lovelock has answers for that as well.
Here’s the second best part of Mr. Finch’s article, and I quote, “You may leap up, after reading those pages, and start faxing them off to every environmentalist group you can contact. It may be the most definitive analysis of the disconnect the media and the ‘greens’ have about nuclear energy and its impact on our health that you have ever read”. Ok.
The capper for me is a statement made by Dr. Lovelock in his book, “I have offered in public to accept all the high-level waste produced in a year from a nuclear power station for deposit on my small plot of land. It would occupy a space about a cubic metre in size and fit safely in a concrete pit, and I would use the heat from its decaying radioactive elements to heat my home. It would be a waste not to use it. More important, it would be no danger to me, my family or the wildlife.”
Finch finishes with this statement, “That should enlighten the yokels arguing against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depository“.
Well, hell, why didn’t we think of that in the first place? Shut down the Yucca Mountain money pit, dig a hole in Dr. Lovelock’s back yard and bury all that waste just waiting for a place to fizzle out, around 10,000 years or so. That way, he can heat the whole town for eternity.
If you’d like a fun read, I suggest Mr. Finch’s article. Every “yokel” needs a good laugh now and then.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
Max Lindberg
My home state is Illinois, and my hometown a little railroad/farming community named Galesburg.We lived on a small farm during my high school years and I became very aware of nature and it's wonders. I loved the out of doors, working with animals, plowing fields and harvesting crops. Those were very good years.After a stint in the Army during the Korean war my broadcasting career took off at the local radio station, a 250 watt "teapot" as it was called in those days. My first job was as an engineer, then the ham came out and I became an announcer/newsman, graduating after several years to a larger market and a stint as a TV journalist/photographer. Cold, wet weather led me to the southwest where I've lived for most of the last 40 years, with a couple of years out to have fun working as a private investigator in San Francisco, and a few years working in Las Vegas hotels and casinos. In all, its been a real ride.After retiring a few years back I became fascinated with the efforts being made to find alternative energy sources. I've watched our environment deteriorate during my lifetime, and now it's my chance to join the chorus of intelligent and caring individuals making a difference one day at a time.
4 Responses to The Lindberg Report Podcast: Eminent Scientist Trashes Renewables, Touts Nuclear
Click on a tab to select how you'd like to leave your comment
A compromise could be Thorium Pebble reactors with helium cooling brayton cycle.
REFERENCES
http://pebblebedreactor.blogspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor
http://www.eas.asu.edu/~holbert/eee460/dfg/index.html
my futile attempt to contact the Religious Right in America here http://www.youtube.com/user/AAGWgladiator
Hi
I just listened to your pod cast. Thank you for your interest. Not sure what your point is, Some the language that Mr. Finch used, ie” if they would bathe, shave and spiff up a bit”. is uncalled for, it is the message of Mr. Lovelock that is important in this case. His first book about Gaia seems to be the catalyst for the green movement. Now Mr. Lovelock has changed his tune. Why? I don’t have that answer. Why would he want nuclear waste buried in his yard, I know I don’t want it in my yard. At 86, is Mr. Lovelock not as sharp as he once was or is he having the last laugh. Again, I don’t know.
What I do know, is that massive amounts of tax dollars are being wasted on wind farms that have proved they are not capable of doing the job, the promoters say they can do.
Again, thanks you for your interest.
Ron
Thanks for the comment. My article is a review of another person’s blog, who quoted from Mr. Lovelock’s books, so there is a great deal of that material here. The author’s (Mr. Finch) referring to ‘greens’ as ‘yokels’, and suggesting that all ‘greens’ are unwashed and unkempt really got my attention.
I have no doubt Mr. Lovelock could be right on about climate change, but for me, nuclear power still presents a real and present danger to the environment.
Again, thank you!
Max
In Revenge of Gaia, Lovelock points out that we do not have the time to fully advance renewables to salvage the planet. He relates that it is his opinion that the only thing available that could help, is a major push towards nuclear power. While expressing concerns that even with this already established and regulated source of energy it was doubtful we come stem the impact of climate change coming at us.
I have not read his recent book. So I’m not going to make any comments about that. However, your article, on a very quick read, sounded as if you were getting most of this from Revenge of Gaia.