Nuclear Reaction of the Knee Jerk Kind
With the nuclear catastrophe in Japan still fresh and ongoing, the anti-nuke voices are getting louder and increasing in number. I don’t mean to minimize the problems that Japan is facing. But I do want to put the dangers of energy in perspective.
Although I don’t have all the answers, I do have a number of questions that serve as food for thought.
How many people have gotten sick, been injured, or died as a result of:
a. Collection and mining of fossil fuels
b. Energy production with fossil fuels
c. Pollution generated by fossil fuels
d. Climate change and the extreme weather that results from it
e. Oil-related wars
How different would the world be if the Arab countries in the middle east didn’t enjoy so much power as a result of their oil supply? How much better off would our own economy be if we hadn’t gotten into wars in that region? How many lives would have been spared?
How much better off would the Arab people themselves be if their leaders weren’t so complacent because of oil riches and power, and instead worked to educate their people and modernize their countries?
How much better off would we be today if we hadn’t had a knee-jerk reaction to Three Mile Island? How much less oil-addicted would we be? Would we have gone to war in the middle east? Would we have had to suck up to leaders in the middle east who, but for oil, are truly not our friends? Had we not had such ties in the middle east, would 9-11 have happened? Would al Qaeda be a household word and would there be a need for a war on terrorism?
And how badly off will the world be when the oil runs out if we don’t find alternatives?
Nuclear energy comes with risk. But so does other forms of energy. Maybe nuclear is just a stop-gap measure until renewable, environmentally friendly energy sources can completely take over. But to shy away from nuclear energy in Three Mile Island style is just not a well thought out plan.
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