Hexdreams strange little blog

Earth Day

Earth Day Flag

Now that everyone has finished voting (YOU did vote didn’t you?) it is time to think about Earth day. Yes, I know it has been completely overshadowed by elections, but it is still important.

Of course there will be the loons like PETA (No, not People Eating Tasty Animals) and Greenpeace who cloud peoples judgement by making everything an issue. This is inevitable. There are real issues though. First thing that comes to mind is power, and as South Africans, we know first hand about not having sufficient power. (So much for “Power to the people”).

Between Eskom, and our wonderful government (who are STILL blaming apartheid after all these years) managed to mismanage our electrical supply, despite knowing that they were heading towards a disaster.

Essentially the reason for the failure comes down to mismanagement:  In 2000, When Thulani Gcabashe took over as CEO of Eskom, he decided to save money by selling of large amounts of our coal reserves.Selling the reserves made money, and the storage cost savings made him look like he was doing his job properly. Eskom then initiated BEE (Black Enrichment and Exploitation) policies that said BEE providers should supply coal as and when Eskom needed it, as opposed to using the long term contract providers they had been using successfully.

The use of lower quality coal led to problems with equipment, and delays as the coal would often become wet from the rain, and be unusable until it dried.

The result: Unplanned power cuts, more expensive electricity, and damage to the economy.

So what does this have to do with Earth Day? Well, remember the mismanagement we were talking about? Yes, the coal. Burning coal in power stations is a major source of CO2, the most well know greenhouse gas.

Instead of swiftly moving towards alternative power sources such as nuclear power, mismanagement now led us to become more dependant on coal for the next five years at least.

The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (hopefully our saving grace) has been beset with major cost overruns, and delays, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. We need the extra power perhaps a little more than some other nations, so hopefully the government does not screw it up more than it already has.

Why nuclear power? It is safe, clean, and proven. Even Patrick Moore, the co-founder of Greenpeace has changed his mind, and advocates nuclear power.

In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my compatriots. That’s the conviction that inspired Greenpeace’s first voyage up the spectacular rocky northwest coast to protest the testing of U.S. hydrogen bombs in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our planet from another possible disaster: catastrophic climate change.

Look at it this way: More than 600 coal-fired electric plants in the United States produce 36 percent of U.S. emissions — or nearly 10 percent of global emissions — of CO2, the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. Nuclear energy is the only large-scale, cost-effective energy source that can reduce these emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for power. And these days it can do so safely.

- Patrick Moore ( Co-Founder of Greenpeace)

All you tree huggers out there, get some focus, and maybe you really can make a difference. Times are changing. The evils of the past are not looking so bad as things get tough. It is not too late to make a difference.