Today's favorite moments included . . .
. . . watching my delighted daughter splash around our apartment pool in the 90+ degree heat.
. . . a family trip to our local fro yo place. Phillip and I both went for the "pineapple tart" flavor (I had mine with a side of "taro"), but we topped them very differently. I went with fresh fruit, while he opted for his favorite topping: sour gummi worms. As for the kids, Joy randomly piped four flavors into her bowl and topped them with chocolate sprinkles, and Daniel was content gnawing on the gummi worms Daddy shared with him. To each their own.
And another thing . . .
. . . I randomly happened upon this statement on the web this week: "It takes genius to split atoms, but it takes an even higher order of genius to split atoms safely. Unfortunately, we aren't that smart yet." No matter how many precautions we take with nuclear energy, accidents happen, and they always will because we're imperfect mortals and nature is unpredictable. I really don't want a radioactive accident in my backyard, or anyone else's for that matter. Nuclear energy may be cleaner and safer than coal or oil (assuming nothing unexpected happens, which isn't necessarily a safe assumption these days), but I still think there are better alternative energy options worth pursuing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I'm so surprised they had taro yogurt! What did you think of it?
Ninety degrees???
And another thing . . .
I read a commentator the other day who said it was bad policy to make decisions based on something that may not happen for another 10,000 years. What he meant was that there ARE places in the United States where natural disasters of the order in Japan are just very unlikely to happen. Of course, nothing is for sure, but if you look at the tectonics of Japan, it is clear that major natural disasters have happened in the past and will continue to happen, regularly.
The trade off is daily and constant environmental degradation. If the climatologists are right, and the rate at which the ice caps are disappearing seems to indicate that they are, then we are talking about sea-level rise that will wipe out coastal cities, inundate entire countries in the Pacific and in Northern Europe, as well as cause massive migrations of people. Some of these scenarios have already been set in motion. Global warming is not as sudden, certainly, and there is more time to move out of harm's way (provided there is somewhere to go), but I think we may only be at the beginning of the disasters our need for energy is causing.
Of course, it can also be argued that on the warming scale, we are already past the tipping point. Even a complete reversal in policy for ALL the world's major energy users (China included) might already be a couple of decades too late.
Good times. ;)
SC, the taro was yummy, and didn't taste as weird as I thought it would. I'll probably get it again.
STM, yes we've had a three day taste of summer, and now we're settling back into more civilized, springlike temperatures.
I wondered if my nuclear energy thoughts might prompt a comment from you. Actually, as I've heard more and more bad news about Japan's struggles with their damaged facility, I've often wondered how that has impacted your thoughts on nuclear energy.
If I'm reading your comment right, it seems like you're saying that nuclear facilities are safe to build in areas where major disasters seem unlikely to occur, and that the alternative to building nuclear reactors is further pollution and global warming from oil and coal.
First off, I heartily agree that we need to replace oil and coal, but I think there are other alternatives--sources of clean, renewable, non-radioactive energy that provide the non-polluting benefits of nuclear without the hazards. True, some of them require more R&D before we can use them on a large scale, but I think our money would be better spent exploring those options than building more nuclear plants.
Second, constructing plants in presumably earthquake- and tsunami-free zones doesn't necessarily guarantee that accidents won't happen. All it takes is a determined terrorist, somebody pushing the wrong button, or some other unexpected factor, and we've got big trouble.
Even our best efforts can't prevent accidents, even on space shuttles and deep water oil rigs. Three Mile Island and Chernobyl were both caused by human error. Accidents always happen sooner or later, and an accident with a nuclear reactor is potentially much more catastrophic than an accident with, say, a solar panel or wind turbine.
I suspect that you, and a lot of other smart, well-informed people think nuclear energy's benefits far outweigh the potential risks (which you consider small and remote). For me, the risks loom so large that I can't help thinking there must be a better way--even multiple better ways--to fill our energy needs.
Post a Comment