To evade the Kha Khan's men, Flandry starts a grass fire on the steppe. An enemy of the Kha Khan says that Flandry's action was evil. The Kha Khan's aircraft smother the flames with foam bombs and do not molest an enemy vessel that also carries a few foam bombs.
"'In such tasks,' said Toghrul Vavilov, Gur-Khan of the tribe, 'all Altaians are one.'" (pp. 366-367)
Are there any tasks in which all Terrestrials are one? Not many. Banks continue to fund fossil fuel industries while governments convene climate change conferences.
23 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And fossil fuels are GOING to continue being used if no REALISTIC alternatives are proposed, advocated, defended, implemented!
And I put zero stock in those official climate change conferences: futile, empty exercises in jaw jawing, yack yacking, hypocritical platitudes, etc. And probably full of ignorant denunciations of nuclear energy, space based solar power, or the use of plain old RUST for sopping up excess carbon dioxide from the oceans.
I recall the long combox discussion we had of such matters, in which I used and quoted from Robert Zubrin's book THE CASE FOR SPACE in defense of my view.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I think that you overstate your case:
criticisms of nuclear energy, whether or not you agree with them, are brought by people who are very well-informed on the subject, not ignorant of it;
surely those who extract fossil fuels are under an obligation to find an alternative, not merely to wait until someone else proposes one?;
the whole nature and tone of this argument bears out that we are not all one on this issue.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Sixty years ago there was a movement in the US to wean the country off fossil fuels by widespread building of nuclear power plants. But hysterics and demagogues opposed to nuclear power were killing that by 1980. Minor incidents like Three Mile Island were eagerly seized on to demonize and strangle nuclear power. And Chernobyl was a Satan sent gift to them! Never mind that the incompetent Soviets were using obsolete designs in a badly managed power plant there.
The people who run and manage utility companies are hard headed businessmen, because they have to be if they are going to be good at their jobs. If it's too costly, difficult, and bogged down in red tape and lawsuits to use nuclear power, they will logically stick to coal, oil, and natural gas. Nothing else, except Demon Nuclear, can give us the massive amounts of energy a high tech society needs. Hydropower is fine, where the right kinds of rivers exist, but is insufficient in global terms.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But sticking to fossil fuels is causing a catastrophe. Continuing as before is simply not a viable option.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
My point was the utility companies are not ALLOWED to have any other alternatives except fossil fuels. Up to date modern day fossil fueled power plants are nowhere as bad as they are in China and India. And natural gas is the cleanest of the fossil fuels. As long as we can't make PROPER use of nuclear power, improving, updating, and using the cleanest possible fossil fuels in power plants is our most realistic option for the foreseeable future.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But carbon going into the atmosphere is causing a catastrophe. Whichever group is at fault, there is a problem here.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
What I am trying say is that if you want to SOLVE a problem you have to accept the solution that WORKS. And, for the foreseeable future, only nuclear energy can take the place of fossil fuels in providing the massive amounts of power a high tech society needs. What matters is what WORKS, even if the solution is one you might not like. If the workable solution continues to be blindly rejected, then nothing will change.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
And my point is that the problem does need to be addressed urgently. Otherwise, there is a catastrophe coming.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And the problem is NOT being addressed urgently, when the workable solution continues to be rejected.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I know the problem is not being addressed urgently. That is the problem.
There is some basic misunderstanding here. I am not advocating solutions that don't work. If a majority of governmental environmental scientific advisors agree that nuclear power is the only way forward, then that is what governments and other powerful organizations should be doing now without any further delay. They should not be continuing to put carbon into the atmosphere. As long as companies continue to do that, then there is a catastrophe coming.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
The problem is that nuclear power has been demonized and vilified so viciously and dishonestly for so many years that it is simply not practical for the utilities to try replacing and phasing out fossil fuel power plants. Until a pro nuclear movement at least as strong as that of the anti nuclear Luddites arises, there will be no change.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
The difference seems to be that you regard "no change" as a viable option whereas my understanding is that it is not. Action that does solve the problem is urgently necessary now. We can continue with me saying "Action is necessary" and you saying "Action won't happen" but meanwhile the situation remains the same and the catastrophe, which has already started, will accelerate.
Paul.
Insisting that only one approach can possibly work and denouncing another sometimes well-informed view as "Luddite" is not the right way to enter into a discussion! There has to be some preparedness to learn which is what you demand from the anti-nuclear lobby.
Surely a large part of the problem is that some people are profiting massively from the status quo and cannot afford, as they see it, to acknowledge that drastic change is necessary? Climate change denial is well-funded.
It may well be that whatever is going to be done will be too little too late but there is no alternative to at least trying to counteract the catastrophe.
Kaor, Paul!
But you seem to leave yourself in a weak position by advocating ACTION, apparently the immediate cession of all fossil fuels. And that is simply NOT going to happen, either in nations like the UK/US, which has made serious efforts in controlling pollution from fossil fuels, and others (such as China and India) who have not. Billions of people around the world are NOT going to agree to stop using fossil fuels if no workable alternative providing the same amount or more of energy replaces them. These people are not going to agree to overnight poverty and mass unemployment.
I want action that WORKS, that provides real alternatives, not feel good, self inflicted ruination which does not even solve the problem.
I call many of the anti nuclear lobby "Luddites," because that is what they are, ignorant of the physics and science of nuclear energy, and refusing to learn. I have only contempt for them, and the demagogues using them as a means of gaining power (as did Poul Anderson).
Are there people who profit from fossil fuels? Sure! But my belief is that they would have prospered even more from nuclear energy, if that had not been made almost impossibly difficult to use.
And one thing I want to do is for mankind no longer keeping all its eggs in the only basket we have, Earth! If Elon Musk founds his colony on Mars, something might be saved if the absolute worst happens. Which is one reason why I invested in Tesla.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I do not know what action is necessary, only that some action is necessary. I am not a scientific advisor to a government. But, if it is true that to continue as we are now is to continue causing an imminent catastrophe, then this is an emergency. We cannot just go on as we are used to doing. That option at least simply does not exist.
Of course those who profit now would have have profited from another source of energy but the point is that some of them are funding climate change denial which, of course, prevents agreement on any solution.
Some of those who oppose nuclear power argue on the basis of knowledge of nuclear physics. Something is very wrong with the way society is currently constituted if this amount of misunderstanding and accusation exists even in the face of a global emergency.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And I disagree even with those who are intelligent opponents of nuclear energy. MY view is that the benefits outweighs the disadvantages. But to explain why necessitates long, sometimes a bit technical discussion--something the more fanatical opponents of nuclear energy can ignore or shout down.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Of course you disagree but my point is only that they are not all ignorant! Ignoring and shouting down occur on both sides of environmental arguments. I saw an internet site where everyone who took seriously the number of scientists predicting disaster was dismissed as a "liberal" and laughed at. (The guy stated that he laughed at them.)It should not have to be such an effort to get a rational exchange even started.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
No argument there! Far too much ignoring and shouting down on both sides of this debate. I do believe the pro nuclear side have the better arguments. And that, for the foreseeable future, nuclear power is the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that there's a degree of hypocrisy -- which Flandry instantly recognizes -- in the Altaian "unity" in fighting steppe grass fires.
The aircraft which has a few foam bombs also rescues Flandry, an enemy of the Kha Khan.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Well, I did think it made sense for all Altaians, whatever their quarrels, to agree on the necessity of controlling grass fires. Because of how important grass was for them.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul and Sean!
I recently attended a presentation at the Patent Office, given by a couple of people from TerraPower, which is trying to develop improved nuclear reactors, which should be safer and cleaner; this is a privately funded company, in which Bill Gates, John Gilleland, and Nathan Myhrvold have invested. You might be interested in checking out https://www.TerraPower.com and https://NatriumPower.com
I certainly hope for their success in replacing fossil fuels with intrinsically safe and more efficient nuclear reactors!
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Nicholas,
Thanks.
Paul.
Kaor, Nicholas!
I am certainly keen on us having yet more improved, efficient, and safer kinds of nuclear power. I will be looking up TerraPower.com.
Regards! Sean
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