I'm old enough to remember the heated discussions in the 80's and 90's about all those spent radioactive fuel rods and waste materials that will remain a hazard to human health for 100,000 plus years. And their safe transport to those storage facilities. Never hear that discussion anymore so I guess they figured it out......right.
It’s a slow process…
www.imperial.ac.uk
It’s a half-life of 250,000 years, which means that after 250,000 years half the toxic waste will have been degraded, in another 250,000 years half of what is left will degrade, and after 250,000 years half of that, etc. It is probably the most immoral action the 20th century has taken, and it hasn’t been solved. No one now alive can guarantee that the toxic waste we create in exchange for 40-50 years of generating electricity will be safeguarded for the millions of years that it will be deadly to all biological life. So we selfishly take our benefit and pass the toxic trash on to future generations to deal with. The only “bright” side is that at our current rate of fouling our own nest, we will bring about the extinction of the human race before future generations can criticize us for dumping nuclear waste on them.
www.telegraph.co.uk
Written by a Texan with a 40 year career in the US oil and gas industry. Quelle surprise! I’m just guessing but he’s probably not keen on net zero.Something to think about when purchasing an MG ev!
China is building new coal power so fast that ‘energy transition’ by the West is meaningless
Even if the US went completely off coal tomorrow, its plants would be more than replaced
I think you’re a little bit behind the curve here. China spent $1 trillion on Belt and Road building ports, train lines, roads and airports. USA spent approximately $1 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan. For what result?China is already challenging Western car makers
Plus: we're making more EVs than we're buying; MG4 XPower review; expert advicem5.emails.telegraph.co.uk
The free world needs to be worried!
You may have already listened, but this is an excellent series.
www.bbc.co.uk
I certainly think that if we are buying the stuff made in the factories then we hold some responsibility for the CO2.
I’m not saying I approve of everything they do. Playing devil’s advocate perhaps.
Agree with much of your post. You say "we need to stop doing that" - 100% with you. For me the best answer we have as meer individuals is to stop purchasing their products. Ever Pound we spend with them props up that regime. When India was pushing for independence one of their best "weapons" was "Home Spun" it caused a lot of damage to the UK's textile manufacturing base. Sometimes it is beneficial to go backwards before carrying on going forwards. The Free World is not without it's problems but we do have the ability to vote out those we don't like - most of the time.
Very difficult to not buy products that don’t have at least some Chinese made parts. Our California vans are probably full of Chinese components/assemblies/sub-assemblies. If they turned off the supply of electronic chips tomorrow the West would be stuffed.
Fully agree. Disengaging from China will be expensive, take time and present challenges. The freedoms we enjoy are not free or low cost.
Also broadly agree with you. It’s just a shame that our democracy has gifted us such terrible results imho.
At present you are correct. But with a global free world committment (yes unlikely) to go down a "Home Spun" tradactory and acceptance that in the short term things might go backwards disengagement from China is possible. The Free World knows the products required and it knows how to make them but currently lack the infrastructure to do so, this can be built.
The problem is not lack of infrastructure, the problem is that manufacturers are determined to use cheap Chinese labor. The fact that we allow products to be sold in Europe that are manufactured in labor conditions, including child labor laws, that would be illegal in Europe has had the practical result of manufacturers succeeding in repealing all our labor protections and child labor laws that so many of previous generations fought and died for. We all want cheap stuff so we look the other way. I am in favor of only allowing products to be sold in Europe that are manufactured under the same conditions and wages that are required here. Some say that such salaries in other countries would be disruptive. The hypocrisy of this can be seen when none of those same people have any objection to a very few factory owners becoming obscenely wealthy by manufacturing in these countries with cheap unprotected labor and then pocketing the profits from selling at European prices. Manufacturers will not change voluntarily, a combination of regulation and financial incentives will be necessary, as Biden has done in the US with chip manufacturing. Yes, things will cost more, but I think it’s immoral to have such cheap prices at the cost of effectively repealing labor protections, supporting slave labor and driving our neighbors’ companies out of business. There’s a study out about how long it takes for the opening of a new Wallmart store (cheap Chinese manufactured goods) in the US to crash the economy of the area (local businesses go bankrupt, unemployment rises, local tax base is devastated leading to the collapse of local infrastructure like roads, sanitation, schools. 5-15 years. The the ability of children in the area to prepare for and enter university drops drastically. The Walton family are 8 of the wealthiest people on the planet, but a full time employee there sells goods manufactured in conditions that have put his neighbors out of a job, AND is eligible for a tax-payer funded food subsidy to feed his family due to the low salary. In other words, some of the wealthiest people on the planet pay their employees with taxpayer money, the definition of corporate sucking from the public tit. Walmart is the largest employer in the US, second only to the US Defense Department. This is what has been created. It’s our decision to decide to change it.
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