Anti-nuclear protesters reach capitol

[bananas]

Source: TImes Argus

MONTPELIER – Anti-nuclear activists totaled around 70 when they left Brattleboro earlier this month for a march through freezing winter temperatures to the Statehouse.

When they arrived in the city early Wednesday afternoon – 126 miles later – their number totaled in the hundreds, flooding the Statehouse with a message that hasn't been that loud since same-sex marriage supporters lobbied lawmakers in 2009.

Betsy Williams of Westminster West, one of the organizers of the "Step It Up To Shut It Down" walk, said about 175 people took part in the march, some joining for a day and some for longer stretches. Participants included toddlers and Vermonters who are in their 80s, she said.

"We don't have the tens of thousands of dollars that corporations have to put on slick television commercials," Williams said, referring to the "I am Vermont Yankee" ad campaign by plant owner Entergy Nuclear Vermont, which features its employees. "What we do have is our hearts and minds and our connection to the land and our neighbors and our communities."

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Read more: http://www.timesargus.com/article/20100114/NEWS01/1140347

[Statistical]

1. Luddites.

Without nuclear power the world would burn millions MORE tons of coal each year.

[bananas]

2. The luddites are the pro-nukes, keeping us stuck on 1950's technology

It's time to move forward to renewable energy.

[Liberation Angel]

4. Fascist technology

just an observation

Thanks for the post

K&R (for what good it will do against the industrial shrills here)

[bossy22]

6. to what viable alternative?

wind power isnt going to cut it, if you filled the entire US with solar panals you still wouldnt even power a 1/4th of the country, hydro energy capacity is already at 50% yet only powers 8% of the country. So what's going to fill nuclear and fossil fuels role?

[defendandprotect]

8. Wind in less than 4 months provided electricity in CA for 185,000 homes!!!

We have to stop burning fossil fuels --

Nuclear is dangerous and still requires fossil fuels --

Additionally, we don't know what the actual effects on the environment from NUKE

may be --

Doubt dropping atomic weapons all over the planet ever helped the environment!!

[bossy22]

10. thats not really that much

in the grand scheme of things. Though i do agree its a very good thing. But wind will never be able to replace nuclear or coal power

[defendandprotect]

12. Whaat--? And that was during the ENRON "crisis" . . .

We don't want Nukes to replace anything -- it's dangerous, not good for environment,

not good for humans -- and subject to human error!

Another little problem we have to begin to acknowledge is overpopulation ---

we're at 7 billion and I'd guess 700 million would probably be too, too many!!

[Pavulon]

13. 180 gigawatts to run the tristate. generate that with bird choppers and solar

and then you have something. Your choices are nuclear or coal. The rest is a currently a pipe dream in that range.

[bananas]

11. You are wrong, you need to do some research

Either wind or solar by itself could provide all our energy,
the land requirements are much less than you think.
edit to add a link:
"Total Surface Area Required to Fuel the World With Solar"
(scroll down for area required to fuel the world with wind)
http://www.landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/127

edit to add: smaller versions of those images here: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/surface-area-required-to-power-the-whole-world-with-solar-power-wind.php

[quaker bill]

14. conservation

it is still a good bit cheaper to purchase the technology to conserve a kilowatt hour without loss of service than it is to build generating capacity of any sort. It is particularly so when the end fate costs are considered. We still have no good way of dealing with nuke waste, flyash, FGD sludge, and sequestering CO2.

Once transmission technology is upgraded, the excess generating capacity created will be enormous. Roughly 30 percent of the all energy used is dissipated heating the transmission lines and transformers. Vast efficiencies are out there to be gained.

There is more than enough solar energy falling on the roof of my house to power it, one simply needs to become more efficient at capturing it and using it.

[Liberation Angel]

3. Way to name call and dissemble

And not very smartly

First: Luddites were protesters against a technology that would make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

So calling someone a Luddite is actually a compliment (except because of how its been twisted by the rich to denote something as negative in general)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

second, coal is not the alternative that antinuclear activists support or believe in NOR is coal the only practical alternative to nuclear.

Your claim is total bullshit.

On top of that the dangers of nuclear (proiferation, permanent mutation of the global gene pool, massive cancer epidemics and infant deaths/mutations) outweigh even the dangers from coal as an interim bridge to renewables/

Renewables WILL come.

NOT coal.

NOT nukes.

Renewables.

[bossy22]

7. So ur strategy

is to base an energy poicy on "hope"? I'm all for renewable energy but i just don't see anything in our realistic future that will get us off nuclear/fossil fuel dependence. The most optimistic number i ever heard was that maybe in the future we could have ethanol substitute 60% of our current gasoline usage. Thats not including electricity generation

we need a truly viable substitute for fossil fuels at the moment, and in reality the only true substitute is nuclear. So pick ur poison

[Liberation Angel]

9. Not at all. 100% renewables are possible globally in 20-30 years (Stanford study)

http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/WindWaterSun1009.pdf


read the conclusion

The conclusions of this study were reported in Scientific American :

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-path-to-sustainable-energy-by-2030

[bananas]

5. Here's another luddite - Carlo Rubbia

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=228x60525

[PavePusher]

15. I hope they turned off their lights...

before they left home.


Seriously, I hope none of them use any electricity generated by non-renewable means. Otherwise they merely wallow in hypocracy.