The Dangers Of Energy

At JSOnline, Gurda recounts Wisconsin's history with nuclear power.  Everyone who knows a little about me knows I am a big, big, big fan of nuclear energy.  In fact, I'm a big fan of cheap, abundant energy.  When Earth Hour or "Turn Your Lights Out For Gaia" or whatever the damn thing is called came around, I turned all mine on the celebrate the technology which has single-handedly made our lives what they are today.  Think of how life would be without fundamental stuff like refrigeration, electric lights, communications like TV, radio, the Internet, and all those cute gadgets we have.  Civilization is far better now thanks to cheap abundant energy.

So, the "environmentalists" and their fellow travelers in government (I am being very kind here) believe that we would be better off using less.  They believe every step in the generation and use of energy is an affront to Gaia or some other absurdity.  This while they ride around in private jets and limos, all the while telling us more expensive and less reliable wind and solar energy is "better".

Let's consider what life is like where cheap, abundant energy does not exists.  Paul Driessen lays it out pretty well here.  Much disease and poverty in the third world and particularly in Africa is related directly to the lack of that which we take for granted.  The poor bear the brunt.  Even in the United States, what will become of the poor if energy becomes prohibitively expensive?

Many arguments are being made against further use of nuclear energy following the Japan earthquake and tsunami.  Fukushima is a disaster in any regard, but how many have died as a result of the Fukushima nuclear plant?  How many died in the quake and tsunami?  The whole matter is grossly overblown in the big picture.  People on the West Coast are in fear of radioactive fallout because they know nothing but what they are told in the news.

We now live in a technologically illiterate world with an absence of critical thinking.  If we do not continue to  drive cheap, reliable and abundant energy policies, our lives will become "Nasty, Brutish and Short".