You will not be surprised to hear that the events in Japan have changed my view of nuclear power. You will be surprised to hear how they have changed it. As a result of the disaster at Fukushima, I am no longer nuclear-neutral. I now support the technology.
A crappy old plant with inadequate safety features was hit by a monster earthquake and a vast tsunami. The electricity supply failed, knocking out the cooling system. The reactors began to explode and melt down. The disaster exposed a familiar legacy of poor design and corner-cutting. Yet, as far as we know, no one has yet received a lethal dose of radiation.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is George Monbiot.
It gets better too.
Deep green energy production – decentralised, based on the products of the land – is far more damaging to humanity than nuclear meltdown.
Yup. Fully converted. Nuclear ain\’t great, but as with democracy, it\’s the least bad option out there. And as he points out, as I\’ve been saying since the tsunami actually hit. What Fukushima shows us is how safe nuclear actually is.
BTW, a little birdie has told me that if you\’ve got a decent plan about thorium based plants, you might get a decent reception at 3i. Just a little tip you understand.
My heart jumped when I saw it.
A Damascus moment.
He may just complete the rest of the journey.
So, Tim, you, I and a million others out there finally have our view “approved”.
Is that 3i’s infrastructure fund? I ask as a (very small) shareholder…
Having read that the moonbats in favour of nuclear power I may have to reconsider my opinions, Its a simple rule but usually if you think the opposite of whatever he writes, you won’t be far wrong….
George Monbiot has pulled up a chair in reality-land and is talking sense?
Am I alone in actually finding that quite terrifying?
More power to the guy. He is clearly making an honest attempt to engage with the issues. Even if I don’t agree with every conclusion, he is making more of an effort than almost every MSM commentator.
“began to explode” Hunh?
But full marks for the penny dropping.
If 3i are interested, the boat has probably already left…
China is routinely killing about 2500 coalminers a year, due to accidents. The figures due to lung disease are not known. The numbers of citizens made ill by the Beijing smogs is similarly not known.
I suspect those dead people are just as dead as the personnel who died at Chernobyl.
And in Japan, we are seeing what the absence of power , heating, and transport can do to a weakened population in a snowbound landscape.
A good day when the enemy run up a white flag.
He also throws in the fact that the radiation at Three Mile Island was to low to hurt a fly (assuming low level radiation wasn’t as beneficial to fly health as to our own). Anybody think he didn’t know that 20 years ago?
He also makes a gratuitous remark about how he “hates the liars who run the nuclear industry”. That would be the liars who told him 30 years ago that the claims by the eco-fascist parasites that the TMI radiation was dangerous were wrong.
Moonbat is a lying fascist parasite who knew exactly what he was saying and is smart enough to know exactly how dishonest it was. He and his eco pals have cost humanity 20 years of progress & cost many people there careers and even lives. Just because he says he has seen the light doesn’t mean he should be treated as a decent human being.
Comments on the article now edging 1300 & not all favourable to George’s new found love. Not sure if this has been his wisest career move either. Somewhat akin to the Pope telling the faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square that not only should the Church refute the Holy Trinity but actually that Satan guy’s been sorely misunderstood and’s a decent old chap, really. It’s more likely George’ll be burned* as a heretic than elevated** to Sainthood.
*With full carbon capture, of course.
** Air Passenger Duty included.
I think what may be happening here is that Monbiot has decided to be more Red than Green. It is interesting to see that the old pro-industry and technology left are reasserting themselves to some extent, this is evident from studying the pro-nuclear commenters at CiF. I suspect that many of them may be uneasy with the quasi-Fascist origins of much Green philosophy and are trying to distance themselves whilst attempting to reinvent left wing politics in the wake of New Labour’s demise. The Green party itself seems to be at something of a watershed in this process, will it stay a minority interest or merge into a new rainbow coalition ?
Neil Craig,
Moonbat is a lying fascist parasite who knew exactly what he was saying and is smart enough to know exactly how dishonest it was. He and his eco pals have cost humanity 20 years of progress & cost many people there careers and even lives. Just because he says he has seen the light doesn’t mean he should be treated as a decent human being.
I’m willing to give Monbiot a bit of a break, because this is the 2nd time in a few months where he’s come out and said “I’ve changed my mind about…”, the other one being high speed rail. He’s also civil with people in the comments to his CiF pieces and will engage in the debate with them.
Some people get things wrong despite actually being decent human beings. It’s often a problem of just poorly judging the information in favour, or against certain options.