Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Environmental Fundamentalists

It should be no surprise that the announcement of ITER project to build an experimental fusion reactor has been met with criticism from the likes of Greenpeace and other 'environmentalists'. While it's one thing to have doubts about the efficacy of huge international bureaucracies running the show, or doubts about the engineering approach adopted for the proposed reactor, it's clear that the doubts from Greenpeace and the like are very different in nature.

For them the promise of almost unlimited energy from fusion is a nightmare. Forget that fusion energy is relatively carbon-neutral and that the fuel is plentiful and cheap. The nightmare for them is that if it works it will power the world to continue to accelerate economic development. For the green movement anything that promotes consumption is bad. That's the bottom line for them. Cutting back on energy usage, reducing consumption and economic development, these are what Monbiot and co are after.

Technologies like thorium power, fusion and so on are a huge threat to environmental fundamentalists.

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