Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
nuclear power in 2009 as the lesser of two evils. “My main reason for this
was my conclusion that surface transport has to go electric”, he explained.
“So we need more electricity. But where is this coming to come from?
Which is worse - unabated coal [without any CSS] or nuclear power?”
He disagrees that nuclear is a distraction from, or the main rival to, the
renewables industy. “The fact that France with all its nuclear power does
better than the UK on renewables - not just on biofuels but better on wind
than the UK - disposes of that argument.”
But most environmentalists continue to quietly oppose nuclear power
on practical grounds. “We're not pro-nuclear,” says Stephen Hale of Green
Alliance, “not because of ideology, but because it's just not cost-effective.”
Mike Childs of FoE adopts the same tone of low-key opposition. “We're
not actively campaigning against nuclear, and we're not ideologically
opposed to it or to any particular technology. But the timescales are now
too short [in the UK] for nuclear to make a difference: we need to draw
on technology that is faster to put in place.”
Peak oil
With oil being an unredeemably GHG-generating fuel, its most pressing
concern - peak oil - is not an issue that divides environmentalists as wind
and nuclear power do. Indeed, all environmental groups welcome any
signs of a peak in oil supply, and they positively campaign for a peak in
oil demand (in that they try to persuade people to use ever less oil). But
there is a division in the environmental movement on how much publicity
to give to peak oil supply.
There are those who believe that peak oil is a more immediate and
powerful lever than climate change in getting people to mend their fossil-
fuel-dependent ways, and that therefore peak oil should be given headline
treatment. There has been a minor flood of topics written on both sides of
the Atlantic about imminent peak oil. The best known peak-oil environ-
mentalist is Rob Hopkins, who has tried to turn his home town of Totnes
in Devon, England into a model for the “transition town” movement - an
idea that has caught on in many other towns across the UK. The idea is
to attempt to move communities towards a “re-localized” economy more
dependent on local produce and services and therefore more resilient in
the face of the coming peak-oil shock.
“One of the things peak oil does very effectively is put a mirror up to
a community and ask: 'What has happened to the ability of this com-
munity to provide for its basic needs?,” writes Hopkins in his
Transition
