GENERATION ECO; GENERATION NUKE
on Oct 18 2007 at 7:17 pm | Filed under: Ecological Red, Generation Eco, arctic ice, natural gas, nuclear energy
Apologies for the long absence. And now there is too much to talk about. What’s a bad blogger to do?
So I guess someone has decided we are Generation Eco. Well maybe I’m too old, and maybe live too far East … But according to the Sacramento Bee, in Sacramento, CA, Generation Eco is out to save the world:
Environment Club, Arthur Butler Elementary School - Photo: Lezlie Sterling
These kids are for real:
Three of the sixth-graders — Helen Kesthely, Brian Tran and Mac Heravian — started planning this club ages ago, way back in fifth grade. They were inspired by an article they read in class about kids in Sweden who raised money and bought land in the South American rain forest to preserve it.
But this club is going even more global.
“At first, we were just going to buy rain forest, but then we decided, ‘Why not make it (about) the entire environment?’ ” explains Helen.
“We’re going to try to stop air pollution, and then make various newsletters and permission slips,” says Brian, another club founder, giving a shout-out to the importance of administrative as well as environmental goals.
Not sure I get the bit about permission slips, or if the school has told them what they’re really up against but this is a really good start.
Speaking about what we’re up against, have you ever listened to those great recordings made by Musicians for Safe Energy at Madison Square Garden. Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne - the list goes on and on. Anyway they did these concerts to raise money to fight against nuclear power. And for several decades, the nuclear power industry was dying and dead in the U.S. The almost fatal accident at Three Mile Island, nuclear power plants built on top of earthquake fault lines, Chernobyl. the fact that there is no safe place to store the nuclear waste, transporting nuclear fuel rods by trucks through communities all over America - the list of scary things about nuclear energy goes on and on.
But hey it’s a new world and even Barack Obama thinks there is a place for nuclear energy in a global warming world. So green boys and girls, keep your eyes open. We may find ourselves with more and more nukes if we don’t watch out.
The MUSE musicians have returned. Here they are:
With more than 80 percent of its electricity generated by nuclear plants, France sees itself as a model for successfully putting the atom at work toward producing carbon-free and relatively cheap power.
More than two decades after Chernobyl shook the world’s faith in nuclear power, France is vying to lead a worldwide revival of the nuclear industry as worries about global warming and rising energy prices have brought fission back in fashion.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has described nuclear power as the “energy of the future”, stood up at the United Nations last month and delivered what was tantamount to a sales pitch for French nuclear technology.
“France is willing to help any country which wants to acquire civilian nuclear power. An energy source for the future should not be the preserve of western countries and out of reach of eastern countries,” Sarkozy declared.
Greenpeace demonstration, Flamanville - Photo: Jean-Paul Barbier, AFP
Money. Money. Money.
There’s gold in them thar hills! And melting ice can mean money.
Jad Mouawad writes about the latest developments as the Arctic ice recedes:
For a quarter-century, energy executives were tantalized by vast quantities of natural gas in one of the world’s least hospitable places — 90 miles off Norway’s northern coast, beneath the Arctic Ocean …
The other day, on an island just offshore, a giant yellow flame illuminated the sky here. It was just a temporary flare for excess gas, but it signaled a new era in energy production.
Across the bay from this small fishing town, where reindeer wander the streets, one of the world’s most advanced natural gas plants is coming to life.
Within weeks, gas will start crossing the ocean in specially designed ships, feeding into the pipeline network for the American East Coast. Before Christmas, furnaces in Brooklyn and stoves in Washington will be burning the gas. It will be the first commercial energy production from waters north of the Arctic Circle.
In Kazakhstan, petroleum engineers are braving wild temperature swings in the shallow waters of the Caspian Sea to tap the biggest oil discovery of the last 30 years. They are drilling wells six miles deep in the Gulf of Mexico. And on the island of Sakhalin, off far eastern Russia, they have drilled horizontal wells through miles of rock to produce oil from a stretch of ocean notable for giant icebergs.
Cargo ship Hammerfest, Norway Photo: Geir Jenssen
Last year alone, companies spent $200 billion developing new energy projects worldwide, according to the study by the consulting firms John S. Herold Inc. and Harrison Lovegrove — an amount larger than the economies of 147 countries.
Back to Generation Eco. And the dilemma we are facing:
The first meeting’s discussion includes ideas on how children can reduce air pollution individually, including going outside and playing instead of watching TV after school, telling parents to use the carpool lane and bugging them to buy a hybrid car. (This last suggestion may have been encouraged by the global- warming movie “Arctic Tale,” which reportedly closes with a child saying, “If your mom and dad buy a hybrid car, you’ll make it easier for polar bears to get around.”)
Mac Heravian knows that such requests aren’t always received well.
“If your family is looking for a car, I recommend a hybrid car,” Mac says. “If your family tells you, ‘It’s none of your business,’ just leave it, ’cause I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”
Well there’s trouble and then there’s Trouble. I mean TROUBLE. ECOLOGICAL RED trouble.
Jeremy Lovell of Reuters reports:
The world moved into “ecological overdraft” on Saturday, the point at which human consumption exceeds the ability of the earth to sustain it in any year and goes into the red, the New Economics Foundation think-tank said.
Ecological Debt Day this year is three days earlier than in 2006 which itself was three days earlier than in 2005. NEF said the date had moved steadily backwards every year since humanity began living beyond its environmental means in the 1980s …
If everyone in the world had the same consumption rates as in the United States it would take 5.3 planet earths to support them, NEF said, noting that the figure was 3.1 for France and Britain, 3.0 for Spain, 2.5 for Germany and 2.4 for Japan.
But if everyone emulated China, which is building a coal-fired power station every five days to feed its booming economy, it would take only 0.9 of a planet.
Hong Kong Lights