Chris Harries writes:

“The lure of a financial bonanza may seem worth it now, but nuclear energy as a non-renewable resource will only serve to entrench our addiction to non-sustainable, high-energy consumption. What then?

This is the real nub of the problem and this is when the economic sums simply don’t add up any more.

In the words of Albert Einstein, ‘It is not possible to solve a problem with the same consciousness that made it.’ ”

Absolutely.

With our current way of thinking, getting down and dirty in the nuclear energy arena in this country is only going to take us further away from sustainability and lead us to a bigger crisis, and only another 25 or 30 years down the track. The crisis at that point will be much greater because the population will have built up to a much higher level, thus stressing supplies (or exhausting them) of many other resources. The facilitation of a larger population will lead to the worsening of all sorts of environmental pressures and make it much harder for us to adapt when nuclear energy becomes unviable.

The nub of the problem is to overcome our addiction to continuous expansionism and other grossly unsustainable practices. This will require a major shift in consciousness.

continued

The now widespread realisation in the general community of peak oil, or eternally rising fuel prices, plus the even higher-profile transnational water-supply issues, should serve as triggers for serious consideration and expression of a genuine sustainability paradigm. And the call from Howard and Beazley to have a nuclear debate should most definitely be extended into a sustainability or future-strategy debate that is much wider than just the nuclear issue.

I call on the Greens, Democrats, Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace Australia, etc, etc, to make sure that the national debate on nuclear futures is fully extended into the realms of true sustainability, and that this includes some very hard debating on the notions that many of us think of as unquestionable - maintaining our high-energy lifestyles, worshipping continuous economic growth, maintaining high immigration, raising our fertility rate, etc.

Again, this means first and foremost, stabilising the whole size of the Australian populace, economy and impact on our environment and resource base, so that the demand for everything can match the supply, rather than supply rates having to struggle to cater for ever-increasing demand.

With this paradigm of stability and balance implemented as a fundamental tenet in our political system and way of life, there might just be a place for a nuclear industry

Cheer up everyone.

The nuclear nongs will have to supply Australia with heaps of liquid fossil sunshine in order to make their dreams come true.

Why? Because the nuclear industry is as dependant upon fossil sunshine as is a squadron of F-16s. What a bonfire of fossil fuel the nuclear boondoggle will be. Bring it on!

Add this warning to all the other global warnings.
Buy gold nuggets, Oz uranium shares, hard rock radioactive waste storage facility shares, sell your city house, shift to the western, water and wind rich hills of NZ and watch the future futility roll on.
A few nights spent on the net googling subprime mortgage, Federal Reserve, climate change, depleted uranium, peak oil,desertification, synthetic oestrogen and their links should be enough. Good luck.

Oooooow

Such a cynical outlook!

No, hold on….

Such a realistic outlook

Bugger!!

(:>(

Well you can't buy gold nuggets with Telstra shares.
Not while you have a broad band that is too slow, and a lot slower about 20 times slower than comparable countries overseas.