Lots to blog – Part 1: Nuclear... elephants and letter published in The Herald
Too many things to try and catch up on so, excuse me if I arm-wave a little.
Yesterday, Patrick Harvie, Rosemary Burnett and I joined Friends of the Earth Scotland (I didn't see any other parties there) supporting them beside their giant white elephant representing nuclear power. It's just a technological distraction - that's commercial nuclear fission power generating reactors I mean... though in a wind the inflatable looming down with its tusks was also somewhat distracting!
It's an odd thing but there seems to be a view that nuclear might be green and rejecting nuclear would somehow guarantee blackouts. This disappoints me: it's really short-sighted (nuclear wont last forever) and misunderstands the opportunities which exist while we are relatively energy rich to tackle our energy wasting culture. What Greens want is to change direction: quickly, to something much better. Nuclear is a distraction from where we should be heading.
I'm not a luddite, I try and keep up with all the arguments and think through the issues. I don't treat nuclear as a simple subject and I know I'm not the only one. Let me tell you a story from 2005, as the Green candidate at a renewable energy hustings I recall teasing the audience by suggesting that I would support nuclear...(pause)... if someone could fix problems a, b, c, d, e and f... If renewables was just an industry populated with fanatics I'd have been boo'ed off. I wasn't. I got nods of agreement from the audience. My point is that there are a lot of people, including engineers and scientists, who take our country's power generation seriously. They realise that the momentous challenge of our time is to find a way to sustainably manage our energy needs and minimise impact on our global environment. These people realise that moving to a low-carbon, energy thrifty, high quality of life, sustainable society is a worthwhile focus of their working lives. A lot of them work in renewables and they need our support. Some are in politics - they need your votes.