My friend Alison, the MIT-trained physicist, has been patiently explaining to me why she is an environmentalist and bird-lover who supports nuclear power. She just sent this link to a Thomas Friedman column about nuclear power, Iran, and democracy in the Middle East: The Geo-Green Alternative - from the NY Times. If you're not a subscriber, try this link.
(Friedman writes) "I am a geo-green. The geo-greens believe that, going forward, if we put all our focus on reducing the price of oil - by conservation, by developing renewable and alternative energies and by expanding nuclear power - we will force more reform than by any other strategy. You give me $18-a-barrel oil and I will give you political and economic reform from Algeria to Iran. All these regimes have huge population bubbles and too few jobs. They make up the gap with oil revenues. Shrink the oil revenue and they will have to open up their economies and their schools and liberate their women so that their people can compete. It is that simple.
"By refusing to rein in U.S. energy consumption, the Bush team is not only depriving itself of the most effective lever for promoting internally driven reform in the Middle East, it is also depriving itself of any military option. As Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, points out, given today's tight oil market and current U.S. consumption patterns, any kind of U.S. strike on Iran, one of the world's major oil producers, would send the price of oil through the roof, causing real problems for our economy. "Our own energy policy has tied our hands," Mr. Haass said."
The Dove is expanding her limits here by giving both Thomas Friedman and nuclear power some airtime. True peace only comes when you open your mind.
Hi I got here following some links as I try to write something for my daily, The Christian Science Monitor, which is a conservative rag but good on some things. It admits a lot about global warming and Depleted Uranium use by the US...but it has failed to come to grips with Peak Oil...M King Hubberts accurate prediction of the rise and decline of oil production- US peak was 1970s, worldwide some think is right now...others 2037 (USGS) Here are some good articles and books. We cannot ignore this the US is the worst and must lead the way out.-PEACE!
Mainstream press-
June 2004 National Geographic-"The End of Cheap Oil"
Rolling Stone March 24, Kunstler "The Long Emergency"
and the best but not mainstream press-Timeline, from Palo Alto Foundation for Global Community:
#73 Jan/Feb 2004 "When the Oil Runs Out" by Mac Lawrence
books-
Richard Heinburg's, The Party's Over and PowerDown
oil engineer, Pierre Chabots', Oil Addiction,the World In Peril
and Julian Darley's, High Noon For Natural Gas
Actually Roscoe Bartletts speech to congress-March 14 was outstanding and he is apparently an arch conservative....sounded like Jimmy Carter TV address to nation, April 14, 1977 only way more dire now...
Posted by: Christy Kirven | April 01, 2005 at 06:54 AM
sorry about double posting-i am not computer adept...
As to nuclear power-the answer is still forget it! Tell your friend to read "Deadly Deceit, Low level Radiation, High Level Coverup"-Goldman,( and others)-it is out of print- still in libraries and online purchase-still true. CDC just terminated funding for a study 7 years in the making about fallouts effects in Utah. Administration does not want people to know...
Posted by: christy kirven | April 01, 2005 at 06:59 AM