>If such a great number of you wish for the demise of the nuclear
industry, leave the main breaker off.
Well
put, Floyd. I really don't know how these folks manage these ethical
conflicts. Sitting in their air-conditioned offices, typing out anti-nuclear
treatises on their computers and faxing them to Washington, DC, where they
will be flying the next day, after they drive their SUVs to the airport. They
hate the power companies and the big oil companies, but demand the right to
use their products to try to drive them out of business. I agree with you
that I could listen harder to their arguments if they had the power of their
own convictions. Some activists (e.g. Mother Teresa) do gain people's respect
of their opinions in this way. Others, like the Greens in Germany, will
happily be found out eventually for what they really are.
Your
comments also remind me of an interesting idea someone once pushed of "yes, in
YOUR backyard". A good way to help people take responsibility for their use of
energy is to halt garbage pickup entirely, and force people to bury their own
waste materials on their own property. With your electric bill every month
would come a little packet of fly ash that you have to bury in *your* back
yard. With a dozen eggs would come a packet of poultry by-products (i.e.
pieces parts), and so on ("let's go easy on the hamburger this month,
ewwwww...").
Michael G. Stabin, PhD, CHP
Assistant Professor of Radiology and
Radiological Sciences
Department of Radiology and Radiological
Sciences
Vanderbilt University
1161 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN
37232-2675
Phone (615) 322-3190
Fax (615)
322-3764
e-mail
michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu