Showing posts with label nuclear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nuclear. Show all posts

April 5, 2011

Monbiot: Radiation no danger

George Monbiot of The Guardian has been convinced by the Fukushima disaster that nuclear power is safe. His opinion is reinforced by the Chernobyl disaster — because few people have actually died from them, and those that did were (or will be) just the workers or other people who shouldn't have been around or shouldn't have drunk contaminated milk.

You see, radiation is safe — as long as you don't go anywhere near it or let it into your body!

A hundred thousand people around the Fukushima plant have probably lost their homes forever, more proof of how safe nuclear radiation is, as long as you drop everything and flee and never come back.

Monbiot's first announcement of this revelation was titled "Why Fukushima made me stop worrying and love nuclear power", paraphrasing the subtitle of Stanley Kubrick's sendup of the arms race, "Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb". Kubrick was being satirical, embracing Armageddon for comedic effect. The ironic edge of the title was apparently lost on Monbiot, who embraces nuclear disaster not as a warning, but as proof of its benefit to humanity and the earth.

Monbiot does argue that there are no safe alternatives, but that does not require pretending that nuclear is safe. Embrace its destructive power, George! Love the danger. Waa-Hooo!