Commentary - Things I Am involved In
That should be "things in which I am involved" but anyway...
I refer to the South Eastern Science Fiction Club in another post and have even made an entry dedicated to it as the group lacks its own website (I am the SESFC President by the way).
The Australian Democrats I refer to in another post also. What more is there to say? It's been an amazing ride to date with both positive and negative experiences. These days I am more interested in the notion of acting as a fully-fledged citizen who can participate directly in civic life rather than via the mechanism of a political party. However I am still involved in the party on both a state committee and as a branch representative.
So what of Nuclear Free Australia? NFA started as an alliance drawing on representatives of different like-minded groups, which is how I got drawn into it (as an ADs rep). Now however NFA is more of a unitary group of activists (I personally feel more like a 'lobbyist' than an 'activist' but that is a topic for another day). The nuclear industry is an issues for which I am a bit radical. Here is a few things to consider on the issue:
- Nuclear Energy has recently been touted as a 'clean and renewable' alternative to fossil fuels. It is worth remembering however that uranium is a finite resource and that the nuclear industry produces plenty of pollution itself.
- The energy produced by nuclear reactors has to be considered alongside the total resource costs (including energy and water) of mining, processing, transporting, constructing, maintaining, defending, decommissioning, disposing and storing. The industry is anything but efficient and only survives with the financial support of governments.
- The same uranium used in nuclear power generation can also be utilized in the production of nuclear weapons. We cannot guarantee that all the Australian uranium exported for energy production is strictly directed into that industry.
Well that is all for the Commentary posts on other parts of this weblog. What now? I can always do nothing for ages. The web is full of out-of-date stuff so what's one more old dusty weblog.
Update
I have now added MonUCS to the sidebar and refer to it in this post.
Another Update
To mark the third birthday of this blog I changed the template. In the process my customized links were deleted. In replacing them I have made some changes. One is the merge 'Sites I Visit A Lot' with 'Things I Am Involved In' and the other is to have changed some and deleted others. My life both off and on-line has become simpler in those three years and that is reflected in the current links.
I refer to the South Eastern Science Fiction Club in another post and have even made an entry dedicated to it as the group lacks its own website (I am the SESFC President by the way).
The Australian Democrats I refer to in another post also. What more is there to say? It's been an amazing ride to date with both positive and negative experiences. These days I am more interested in the notion of acting as a fully-fledged citizen who can participate directly in civic life rather than via the mechanism of a political party. However I am still involved in the party on both a state committee and as a branch representative.
So what of Nuclear Free Australia? NFA started as an alliance drawing on representatives of different like-minded groups, which is how I got drawn into it (as an ADs rep). Now however NFA is more of a unitary group of activists (I personally feel more like a 'lobbyist' than an 'activist' but that is a topic for another day). The nuclear industry is an issues for which I am a bit radical. Here is a few things to consider on the issue:
- Nuclear Energy has recently been touted as a 'clean and renewable' alternative to fossil fuels. It is worth remembering however that uranium is a finite resource and that the nuclear industry produces plenty of pollution itself.
- The energy produced by nuclear reactors has to be considered alongside the total resource costs (including energy and water) of mining, processing, transporting, constructing, maintaining, defending, decommissioning, disposing and storing. The industry is anything but efficient and only survives with the financial support of governments.
- The same uranium used in nuclear power generation can also be utilized in the production of nuclear weapons. We cannot guarantee that all the Australian uranium exported for energy production is strictly directed into that industry.
Well that is all for the Commentary posts on other parts of this weblog. What now? I can always do nothing for ages. The web is full of out-of-date stuff so what's one more old dusty weblog.
Update
I have now added MonUCS to the sidebar and refer to it in this post.
Another Update
To mark the third birthday of this blog I changed the template. In the process my customized links were deleted. In replacing them I have made some changes. One is the merge 'Sites I Visit A Lot' with 'Things I Am Involved In' and the other is to have changed some and deleted others. My life both off and on-line has become simpler in those three years and that is reflected in the current links.
Labels: Political
posted by Dan at
5.12.05
2 Comments:
Interesing post. Although I agree with the issues raised, what of Kyoto and Australia's position of being the world's worst C02 pollutor per capita? What are the options for quick reduction in the use of coal for electricity generation? Solar, wind and tide sources are underdeveloped and unreliable. Natural gas is a possiblity but should nuclear power be ruled out? No, I don't have an answer...
By
Anonymous, At
29 December, 2005
Thanks for the post Ashe. I think we make the mistake of thinking there is just one answer to these problems. A host of solutions need to be utilised in concert.
The use of petrol and coal will be with us for some time yet and to reduce dependence on them a host of alternatives need to be embraced from natural gas to ethanol to things like wind and tidal and solar. There is also hydro - I know that it too has environmental objections but everything we do will have its pros and cons and we have to do a 'cost-benefit analysis' everytime.
The other aspect of the issue is finding ways of reducing energy consumption rather than just desparately looking for new sources of energy to satisfy that consumption.
It is worth us admiting that we lack the definative answers to these problems and we should be wary of anyone who says they do have all the answers.
By
Dan, At
30 December, 2005
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