The end of the combustion engine as we know it?

[Kezzieboy]

Nuclear waste is controllable you say....can I get a ChernobylFukushimaThreeMileIsland

I realise these are extreme examples, but that's the problem with nuclear, if it goes wrong the consequences are terrifying.

And I agree about the airborne/waterborne contaminants from burning fossil fuels, but they're no less manageable than nuclear waste with many aftertreatments proven to deal with most of the pollutants. Just playing devils advocate now tbh, beats revision.

[RetroPug]

Nuclear waste is controllable you say....can I get a ChernobylFukushimaThreeMileIsland

I realise these are extreme examples, but that's the problem with nuclear, if it goes wrong the consequences are terrifying.

And I agree about the airborne/waterborne contaminants from burning fossil fuels, but they're no less manageable than nuclear waste with many aftertreatments proven to deal with most of the pollutants. Just playing devils advocate now tbh, beats revision.

Comparison of statistics deaths to obtain energy from fossil fuels shows that more people die per kWh of energy from fossil fuels. I do not have these to hand but have been shown them on several occasions and I'm sure they're out there with research.

On a similar note, if thousands of people die due to an industrial accident producing pesticide nobody suggests that production of pesticide should be halted such as the Bhopal disaster. If people die on oil rigs or drilling for gas nobody suggests we should stop using gas or driving cars. However, if a similar accident occurs producing nuclear power suddenly it is too dangerous?

Removing the media hype surrounding each method of energy production and looking at the facts nuclear power becomes a far more attractive option. The main reasons nuclear power is thought of poorly by the public are association with WMDs and huge amounts of press surrounding nuclear disasters compared to other industrial disasters and accidents.

Yeah I'm also procrastinating a little bit.

[Kezzieboy]

I think the reason Nuke accidents are such big news are the lasting effects. Usually an industrial accident is tragic, and kills more than the 0 people that it should, but that's it, it's over. Unless we're talking oil spills which I think are a pretty good reason for a shake up of how we're obtaining our energy as they're tragic and utterly avoidable.

Neither are the answer, I'm sure we can agree, but we're stuck with them at the moment. I wonder which is more socially destructive; the monopolisation of nuclear by the enormous energy companies who are the only ones who can afford to produce nuclear power, or the political power of oil, that has caused wars, and countless regime changes to suit the 'seven sisters' of oil, and their puppet governments

[RetroPug]

I think the reason Nuke accidents are such big news are the lasting effects. Usually an industrial accident is tragic, and kills more than the 0 people that it should, but that's it, it's over. Unless we're talking oil spills which I think are a pretty good reason for a shake up of how we're obtaining our energy as they're tragic and utterly avoidable.

Neither are the answer, I'm sure we can agree, but we're stuck with them at the moment. I wonder which is more socially destructive; the monopolisation of nuclear by the enormous energy companies who are the only ones who can afford to produce nuclear power, or the political power of oil, that has caused wars, and countless regime changes to suit the 'seven sisters' of oil, and their puppet governments

True, but then how many lasting effects of burning fossil fuels do people experience that don't get attributed to them? Respiratory problems, air pollutants, smog etc. etc. I'm not saying it's worse, I'm just saying that direct comparisons of long-term damage are quite difficult to draw accurately.

I think the common destructive factor in that case is human nature..

[Kezzieboy]

Yeah, it's pretty much impossible to gauge properly.

And I like to think that people are inherently good, and get conditioned to be greedy lady gardens

[RetroPug]

There are an awful lot of lady gardens around though...

[Poodle]

If you listen to one side it's already too late, listen to the other and pollution is just a hippy theory to earn the government more tax. The truth is most likely somewhere in the middle, but this right here should be the real concern:

I think the common destructive factor in that case is human nature..

What happens when someone discovers a problem that someone else is making money from? You get every useless bastard in the pub spreading theories about how it's all a plan by the government/banks/corporations/USA/freemasons/insert-sensationalist-scapegoat-here to rip everybody off. Now worrying about that really is too late. In the meantime the destructive practices continue and useful debate gets bogged down by political lobbyists and idiots who deny everything in case it upsets their little world.

Yeah, it's pretty much impossible to gauge properly.

And I like to think that people are inherently good, and get conditioned to be greedy lady gardens

They do say there's one born every minute. I used to think like you then i met some people outside of uni lol. As far as i can tell, there's no "good", just degrees of selfish.

[Kezzieboy]

If you listen to one side it's already too late, listen to the other and pollution is just a hippy theory to earn the government more tax. The truth is most likely somewhere in the middle, but this right here should be the real concern:

I think the common destructive factor in that case is human nature..

What happens when someone discovers a problem that someone else is making money from? You get every useless bastard in the pub spreading theories about how it's all a plan by the government/banks/corporations/USA/freemasons/insert-sensationalist-scapegoat-here to rip everybody off. Now worrying about that really is too late. In the meantime the destructive practices continue and useful debate gets bogged down by political lobbyists and idiots who deny everything in case it upsets their little world.

Yeah, it's pretty much impossible to gauge properly.

And I like to think that people are inherently good, and get conditioned to be greedy lady gardens

They do say there's one born every minute. I used to think like you then i met some people outside of uni lol. As far as i can tell, there's no "good", just degrees of selfish.

EXACTLY that. Couldn't have put it better myself.

And yeah, you're probably right but I'm too young and life's too long to resign myself to that opinion already Oh, and you were lucky if the people you met at uni were nice/not selfish, most of the people at UoB are private schooled, molly coddled, 'daddy will pay' arseholes.

[Kezzieboy]

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/jo...tion-right

Made me chuckle, though some of you might enjoy it