Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 20:35:13 -1000
From: "Peter Ogilvie" <konacoffee2@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: LRO: Re: Wasted youth (was parts availability, etc.)
>The eco freaks have shut down the Nuclear power industry in the US.
Interesting how the same people that rail against coal fired power plants
also, violently oppose the only non polluting and virtually limitless power
source that we have.
This is a very good observation. Nuclear power is a technology, and like
any other technology, if you design, use, and maintain it intelligently,
it will work just fine. The French have been using nuclear power as their
primary source of electricity for decades. I don't live there, so I'm certainly
not aware of what goes on in that country on a day to day basis. But so far
as I can tell, their nuclear power plants are humming along just fine, and they
don't have a power shortage. But the French tend to take a
more rational and logical view of things, anyway, where Americans get
hysterical at the drop of a hat. The French developed trains that
move people efficiently at almost 200 mph. We have.... Amtrak.
The French have been more innovative in aviation than the US, although
they have not capitalized on aviation as successfully (so far) as the US.
There is no reason nuclear power cannot be as reliable and safe a generating
method as coal, oil, or natural gas. But Americans have this "Oh my God, it's going
to explode" hysteria over nuclear power, so the lights go out in California. It's
interesting that most of the protesters against power plants, be they coal, gas, or
nuclear, are young people. Or as the lawyer said in the movie My Brother Vinnie,
"yutes." I wonder where these kids think the power to run their DVD players is going
to come from when they grow up?
The radical side of the environmental movement just succeeded in getting the Georgia
Pacific pulp and paper plant in Bellingham, WA shut down. The mill, which has
been in operation for decades, has also been hit with astronomical power costs as
the result of insufficient generating capacity in this state, due in part to the successful
blocking of new plants by the environmental movement. They tried to keep the plant going
by renting 40 diesel generators, but the environmentalists got that stopped, too. So the
plant closed last week, putting over 400 people out of work in a relatively small town.
Looking at it in black and white, diesel generators do pollute. Power plants can pollute,
too, if they aren't designed and managed properly. The mill, which had done a great deal
over the last few years to clean up its operation, still polluted some. So the
environmentalists can truthfully say they have successfully shut down a source of pollution.
But what about the 400-plus people who are out of work? Every job at that mill supported
seven jobs in the community (these are government statistics, not mine). So it's not
just the mill workers that are losing their jobs, but waiters, bookstore owners, supermarket
clerks, real estate agents, etc., etc., etc. It won't be long before one of the protesters
complains because his or her favorite little restaurant has closed, or the auto parts
store has closed, or the funky used bookstore went out of business. But they won't
see the connection between those things and their all-or-nothing protest campaign.
And THAT's my single biggest complaint about "youth." They don't have the experience
or knowledge to see that everything is connected. In the past, it didn't matter so much
because youth was over-ridden by more experienced reason. But now in our
"minority rules" society, the one-sided yammerings of special-interest groups
are given far too much say in matters that ultimately affect the lives of hundreds,
if not thousands of people.
I am very pro-environment. I care more about animals than I do about people,
in large part because I can't think of any problem on this planet that has been
caused by animals, but I can think of a lot of problems that have been caused by people.
So people gotta go, at least a hell of a lot of them. But until that happens (and it
will, although I have no idea how), there has to be a balance between what's good
for the environment and what's
necessary to continue our attempt at surviving, and one would hope, improving.
But the kids refuse to see that, and it's clearly a waste of time to try to help them
see it. So I don't hate "yutes." I just don't care about them anymore. I've got
better things to do with my time.
Tropical roofs DO work, metal grills ARE cooler looking, and drum winches
ARE wussy. And ELECTRIC drum winches are simply disgusting. Life may be
nothing but grey areas, but the rules about Land Rovers are black and white :-).
___________________________
C. Marin Faure
(original owner)
1973 Land Rover Series III-88
1991 Range Rover Vogue SE
Seattle
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