rod mclaughlinGeorge Monbiot loses his marbles (07 apr 11)
The picture is of European Union chief climate bureaucrat, Connie Hedegaard. She's not as nice as she looks. George Monbiot is an influential writer for the Guardian, "the world's leading liberal voice" as it says on the mobile phone version of its website. He is a green, and a major defender of the theory of global warming/climate change/meteorological activity, or whatever they are calling it these days. Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, Monbiot has found another cause - nuclear power. He's in favor of it. At least he's not predictable! This article examines the exaggerated claims of opponents of nuclear power, and concludes that, because they are lying, nuclear power isn't such a bad idea: "Failing to provide sources, refuting data with anecdote, cherry-picking studies, scorning the scientific consensus, invoking a cover-up to explain it: all this is horribly familiar. These are the habits of climate-change deniers...". In reality, these are the habits of climate-change promoters - except for 'scorning the scientific consensus' - only real scientists scorn consensus. The main problem with nuclear power is that most people don't understand it. Whereas it is easy to explain conventional and alternative energy production by boiling water over a fire, using the steam to turn a windmill, and the windmill to turn a magnetic coil, few can understand splitting the atom. As a result, ordinary people have to rely on educated people like George Monbiot. They have to be able to trust them. But that trust is unfounded. Even the American Physical Society, the most important organisation of physicists in the world, has been corrupted by the global warming cult: We know politicians are congenital liars. As Monbiot shows, well-respected opponents of the establishment can be fibbers too. We cannot accept nuclear power because most of us don't understand it, and of people who do understand it, we don't know which of them to trust. Alexander Cockburn is another influential journalist. He is also red and green, but draws opposite conclusions to Monbiot - climate change is a scam, and nuclear power is insane. I'm inclined to agree with him. Back
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