Nuclear winter, Tiny cars and Green IT
Here's 3 articles I thought were worth sharing from my morning reading - after yesterday's entirely predictable and depressing announcement that the UK Government is going to spend more billions on failed nuclear power, Polly Toynbee has a good analysis on how it happened in the Guardian:
The danger is that politicians have decided they have taken the "hard decision" and nuclear is "the answer". If a "mix" is needed, the nuclear concrete mixers may grind up the wind, solar, wave and tidal generators that will be needed before the first lightbulb is lit by a new reactor. Meanwhile, the "nuclear answer" deceives the public and delays yet further the necessary great national energy-efficiency drive that politicians continue to avoid.
On another big environmental story - the Tata cheap car for India, Desicritics has an entertaining article, 'The Tata Nano: The Second Coming or Satan's Car?' It covers the debate around the launch of the car and its implications and includes a few barbed comments about our own slogans!
PRO - It's a marvel of engineering! The world will never be the same again! Tata rocks! The car has been reinvented again! And also, Jesus, Vishnu, Moses, Mohammad and the Buddha called and said this was the best they could have hoped for humanity. Amen.
CON - It's a disaster of unimaginable levels! Civilization as we know it has come to an end! Tomorrow we shall wake up and find ourselves choking to death! Polar bears will drown, whales will be eaten and tigers will end up as Viagra. I hope you're all happy, doing Satan's work!
Less entertaining but also informative about Green IT trends - 'More Steps Toward Eco-Friendliness: Lead-Free, Halogen-Free and Energy Efficiency' from GreenComputing.com. Green was definitely the PR buzzword at the annual gadget fest of the Consumer Electronics Show this year.
Comments
Your comment that politicians have decided they have taken the "hard decision" and nuclear is "the answer" just shows how daft people can be. Why did we elect these idiots? This the question we asked on our blog with links to various organisations and eco-book reviews.
Posted by: Keith | January 18, 2008 3:41 PM
I love it that an Indian company was able to buy out jaguar and land rover... but the nano is f'ugly and wish it were more environment friendly considering the impact this car could have in terms of numbers.
Posted by: mallory | April 25, 2008 4:42 AM