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Richard Loosemore wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:47F2D034.2060906@lightlink.com" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Kevin Freels wrote:
</pre>
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<pre wrap="">Overall I am optimistic that this can be done, but not if people are
locked into a mindset in which the main problem with the nuclear
industry is that idiot environmentalists have been bollixing the work of
the captains of industry.
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<pre wrap="">There is however some subtle truth to this. I wouldn't say many are
locked into a "mindset" about this. I think Eli was just acknowledging
that the modern day environmentalist movement is indeed the main reason
nuclear power has been much ignored while we continue to burn off our
fossil fuels. There is some good debate here as to whether or not global
warming is caused by these emissions or even whether or not global
warming itself is bad. But for the most part everyone here knows that an
alternative needs to be found long before the oil runs out so this issue
trumps global warming. I personally like the green people - until they
stand in the way of progress. But many get their priorities out of whack
so while Eli's statement may not apply to everyone that is "green, it
certainly applies to many.
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<pre wrap=""><!---->
Sorry, but I just don't accept the analysis.
In the 1960s and 70s the greens lobbied hard for less nuclear power and
massive funding of sustainable energy. Result: nothing happened.
Then Three Mile Island and Chernobyl happened, and nuclear was suddenly
scary as hell. Overnight, no new plants.
Then the greens continued to lobby hard for massive funding of
sustainable energy. Result: nothing happened.
Then 9/11 and Iraq happened and oil started increasing in price at a
rate that was actually noticeable, and now suddenly nuclear is back on
the agenda.
If you see, in this pattern, the pernicious influence of the green
lobby, then what you are seeing, I suggest, is only the blood-stained
back of a whipping boy.
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I see where you are coming from. And yes, markets are much more
powerful than any activist group could be. It takes markets to get
things done. Activists can only stop things from being done. It's two
different things. We're not talking about what the green movement has
accomplished. We are talking about what they have prevented. Ask some
average people on the street sometime if they would like to see nuclear
power plants spring up all over America as a solution to the oil
problems. When they tell you "no", ask why. I am sure you will get an
environmental argument long before you get a nuclear weapons or
economic argument. <br>
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