Re: [Marxism] Nuclear Power, again...

[Paddy Apling <e.c.apling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 06:22 12/01/2006,David Walters wrote:
> I just received this months Platts "POWER" magazine, one of the energy
> industries leading magazines.
>
> There is a short editorial here:
> <http://www.platts.com/Magazines/POWER/2005/december/200C5RZr1C208165005IBQ_1.xml>
>
> on nuclear power but it's a lead in to a longer article that details
> to aspects
> of this industry.

<snip>

> I think we should have a long term discussion on a Marxist/Working class
> persepctive(s) toward energy in general and the new nukes now being proposed
> specifically.

I thoroughly agree with that last suggestion.

We really do need to discuss both energy and food issues from a
global socialist perspective, bearing in mind that still the most
effective way of capturing the energy coming from the sun, by a large
factor, is photosynthesis by plants - and that the main limit to
producing more food (or biomass for conversion to liquid energy
sources) for the burgeoning population of the globe is the
availability of water for irrigation (as well as the continuing
problem of safe drinking water supply in so much of the world) -
which means  that the energy and food problems are inextricably linked.

It really is necessary for socialists to take note of advances in
science and technology and not simply hold on to statements which may
have been true in the distant - and sometimes the quite recent past -
but which are no longer relevant, but are inscribed deeply in popular
memory and are simply repeated with a force akin to religious "knowledge".

More energy and  more food production are key to making world
socialism a real possibility - it cannot be based on two-thirds of
the human population living in poverty and want.

Of course there are problems with atomic energy; of course there are
problems with the new methods of plant breeding - but problems are
for human ingenuity to solve - not just to be seen as insuperable
barriers to advances in the application of science and technology.

Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com
















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