Day: March 22, 2011

The Energy Crisis After Japan And The BP Oil Spill

The crisis over future energy supply has ratcheted up as a result of the Japanese nuclear power plant disaster, after the fifth greatest earthquake ever recorded, which also caused a massive tsunami in northern Japan.

This, plus the British Petroleum Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico make it very obvious that the United States is faced with a major problem with no easy solution.

Can we really expect nuclear power plants to be safe enough with the danger of a nuclear accident as at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979, and the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union in 1986?

Can we really find a solution to nuclear waste, finding an appropriate location in our nation for an extremely dangerous supply of material that no one wishes to have in their state boundaries?

Is Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee correct in saying we should not turn against nuclear power because of Japan, because after all, we don’t turn against airplanes because of a plane crash? Are these two tragedies, a nuclear disaster in an earthquake zone, and a plane crash, equivalent?

The answer to all of the above is obviously NO, and when one realizes that if there was an earthquake in California or New York or many other locations, millions upon millions of people would be in harm’s way, and unable to evacuate out of the danger zone!

Nuclear power cannot be the answer to our energy crisis in the future, and we had better learn from what has happened in Japan, but will we, since the motivation of profit governs everything that politicians consider, including public safety!

Meanwhile, however, it is obvious that the BP Oil Spill demonstrates that we have to be prepared to destroy wildlife, our water supply, our soil, in the name of having oil companies earn obscene profit in the name of their shareholders, instead of considering the danger to the environment and human beings!

The answer is that we must, somehow, utilize wind, water and solar power in the long run, and spend the investment money to make these cleans sources of energy the future!

If we could go into space and the moon within a decade, why can’t we invest in research to get away, over time, from oil, whether from oil drilling off our shores or supplies from other unstable countries; and also move away from nuclear power, before it destroys us completely in an earthquake disaster certain to come, at the least in California and the Pacific Coast, or in the Midwest, or even in the New York metropolitan area, all places where it could indeed occur!

The energy crisis requires strong, innovative leadership to think of the long term future, not just short term profits!

Ironic Coincidence: Iraq War And Libyan Civil War Intervention On Same Day And Timing Within Presidential Terms Of Bush And Obama!

Now that the United States is engaged in the Libyan Civil War, it comes to mind that the timing of our intervention EXACTLY matches the situation of intervention in Iraq under George W. Bush!

The United States started military intervention in Iraq on March 19, 2003, two years and two months into the Bush Presidency.

The United States began military intervention in Libya on March 19, 2011, two years and two months into the Obama Presidency!

Both wars were against horrible tyrants of long standing–Saddam Hussein since 1979 and Moammar Gaddafi since 1969.

Both tyrants had been engaged in conflict against the US–Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War under George H W Bush, and Moammar Gaddafi in terrorist actions against the West and twice experiencing air attacks under Ronald Reagan in 1981 and 1986, with the second time nearly killing Gaddafi, bombing the house next to where he was hiding!

There is, of course, much different between the two interventions, but both began with great optimism as to the brevity of the war effort, and we all know how Iraq is now eight years long and counting of an intervention, and one has to wonder will this nation be involved in Libya eight years from now?

And there is troubling concern over much congressional opposition, both from Democrats and Republicans, plus concern over the financial cost of yet another war intervention, making it THREE at once!