Dear List Manager, Can you please add "[log in to unmask]" thank you. For Freedom Saiks >From: abdoukarim sanneh <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: New statesman-Our greed for energy will be our downfall >Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 14:00:59 -0800 > > Leader > Please note: this page displays the most recent New >Statesman leader. If you wish to link to this specific article, please link >to this article's permanent page: http://www.newstatesman.com/200512050001. > Our greed for energy will be our downfall > The question is not: can we sustain our energy supply >without learning to love nuclear? It is, or at least should be: can Britain >and similar countries sustain present levels of energy consumption without >causing economic instability and environmental disaster? Politicians look >at this issue from the wrong end of the telescope. The public is equally >culpable. > >The six-month energy review initiated by Tony Blair is welcome. It will >raise the quality of the debate about a subject on which views are >polarised but often ill-informed. Both sides employ widely divergent >statistics on the economic efficiency and the ecological effects of nuclear >power. The industry - one of the most sophisticated lobbyists in the >corporate world - claims that new-generation nuclear stations provide >"clean" energy and that they perform enviably, producing few carbon >emissions. Fact or fiction? Meanwhile, advocates of renewable energy, >particularly wind turbines, argue that only a combination of government >lethargy and local nimbyism is preventing rapid expansion of surely the >least unlovable form of energy production. They point out that the >government is withholding a £50m investment in wave power - a tiny sum, >given the predicted tens of billions that will be required for eventual >storing of nuclear waste. > >The debate raises inevitable suspicions about the Prime Minister's >approach. Such is the government's track record of launching commissions, >only to prejudge, distort or ignore their findings, that it seems hard to >imagine that Blair has not already made up his mind. He has dropped enough >hints to suggest that, whatever else it says, he wants the review to >conclude that nuclear power continues to have a foothold in our energy >policy. > >Atomic power provides a fifth of Britain's electricity. The projection is >that, by 2020, when just one of the country's ageing reactors is scheduled >to be operational, that share will fall to roughly 5 per cent. Cost remains >the biggest obstacle. Not a single new reactor will be built without heavy >state subsidies. Leaving aside the other issues, is this the best use of >public funds? Even if a mass building programme were to take place, the >role of nuclear in energy provision would still remain small. So what, one >might say, would be the point? > >While coal continues to stave off its eventual demise, we rely ever more on >gas - and as North Sea fields dwindle, that means relying on Russia and >other parts of the former Soviet Union. Gas already produces roughly 40 per >cent of our electricity, a figure that is expected to climb to 60 per cent >by 2020. The problem with this is less economic and environmental than one >of security, and international politics. > >The world is still learning the lessons of its dependence on oppressive >Middle Eastern regimes, particularly Saudi Arabia, for oil supplies during >the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. President Vladimir Putin now uses oil and gas >deals - involving companies that are state monopolies in all but name - as >his means of projecting Russian power. That power is growing, as a recent >agreement with Germany attests. In one of his last major decisions as >chancellor, Gerhard Schroder cut a deal with Moscow for a pipeline under >the Baltic Sea which circumvents neighbouring states. The Kremlin was eager >to portray this as a reward to a friendly state and a punishment to the >likes of Poland. The EU has so far failed lamentably to construct a >pan-European energy policy based on diversity, reliability of supply and >environmental concern and which is also co-ordinated, preventing a >divide-and-rule that will become ever more acute as demand around the world >exceeds supply. > >For all the focus on supply, ultimately it is demand that will determine >our security. It is all too easy for citizens and politicians of the UK and >the rest of the EU to make defeatist noises about China, India and other >new mega-consumers of energy. There is much we can do on a governmental and >individual level to cut consumption, but precious little of that is being >done. In his powerful book The Long Emergency, an extract of which was >published in the New Statesman in August, James Howard Kunstler pointed to >the impending energy crisis, arguing that the remaining fossil-fuel >reserves tend to be concentrated in areas of greatest tension. Nuclear or >no nuclear, we will not solve the problem of supply, but we can begin to >deal with our own increasingly precarious needs. > > > >Welcome to the granny state > >People of all ages are feeling the squeeze. Adair Turner says we will have >to work until we are 68 or older. Supposedly enlightened newspapers trot >out more fatuous claims about women no longer wanting to "have it all" (as >if they ever did). Just when thirtysomethings want to develop careers, they >are told they shouldn't for fear of damaging their young offspring (the >jury is out on that one). Meanwhile, those in their sixties and seventies >who want to mix paid employment with recreation and family time are warned >that it is about to get harder. > >Perhaps the UK should turn to the Continent, in particular Russia, for >guidance? There it has long been the norm - under communism and capitalism >- for the oldest generation to look after the youngest, perhaps handing >them back to the parents at weekends. Boost grandparents' pensions as an >incentive, then the problems are solved. Easy. > To read comments on this week's vote click here > > [input] [input] [input] [input] > Respond > > > > > >--------------------------------- >Yahoo! Shopping > Find Great Deals on Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping > >¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ >To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L >Web interface >at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html > >To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: >http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l >To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: >[log in to unmask] >¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN Search Toolbar now includes Desktop search! http://toolbar.msn.co.uk/ ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤