Today "Eco-Warriors" have marched on Drax Power Station (the "largest, cleanest and most efficient coal-fired power station in the UK" according to their website) in North Yorkshire, for a "mass day of action" to force the temporary closure of a power plant (so far 28 have been arrested) that produces 7% of the UKs electricity. They take this action because it produces 20.8m tonnes of carbon emissions each year.
These people protest about the usage of coal-fired power, which supplies 50% of our electricity, ans want them all to be shut down immediately because they pollute the environment. Yet what does not these days? Everything needs power to make or use. They are part of our lives, and we're not going to forsake them because of something that might happen many many years in the future (despite the claim on the Camp for Climate Action website that: "after all, we've only got a few years left to make the radical changes that we desperately need!"). These protestors want anything that could be considered "environmenetally polluting" shut down. And yet they have no plan for what to replace it with. They reject nuclear power out of hand because of the supposed "the health and environmental problems that will come with it" and want us all instead "to massively reduce our power consumption, and to get what power we do use from renewable sources".
Well, I hate to break it to them, but so-called "renewable sources" just can't hack it. They are simply not advanced enough to be able to handle the capacity we require. So why not reduce the power consumption like they ask? Because no-one wants to do that. It is simply against human nature to go backwards technologically. And how would it possibly be enforced?! Also, besides all that, even these "renewable" energy sources cause pollution but of a different kind, such as visual and noise pollution - wind turbines are ugly, loud things, for one.
George Monbiot argues in his Comment Is Free article that:
"[T]hey have already succeeded in their real aim, which is to draw attention to the government's failure to cut carbon emissions. Drax is a good symbolic target: with sufficient political will, and at some expense, the government could have closed all our coal-burning power stations by now...How is it possible to shut down coal power stations without any alternative? You and your kind won't allow for nuclear power to be the solution to carbon emissions, and wind turbimnes and solar power and other forms of "renewable" energy aren't cost effective. They simply don't produce enough energy. When they can, fine. Then they can be used to supply the majority, if not all, of our energy needs. Until then, shut up.
Now the movement intends to do the same for global warming [as they did for preventing roads being built in the early 1990s]: by keeping the issue in the news and by showing that people are prepared to risk being beaten up or imprisoned for their beliefs, the protesters will help ensure that climate change can no longer be ignored. Anyone who cares about the health of the planet should wish them luck."
These so-called "Eco-Warriors" are nothing more than idealistic idiots, who have no idea about the reality of energy production and consumption. "Green" issues may be a big thing at the moment, but when it comes down to it, they are all nothing more than a sideshow. Who would want to live in a country where there was no pollution, but was run over by uneducated, illerate, thugs and criminals?!
Sources: BBC, The Times, The Guardian, Comment Is Free
