Letters to the Editor
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It's time to step up!
Europe, in general, is way ahead of the US. Every major city supports a well developed public transportation system. Rail systems between cities are diverse and well serviced. You rarely are out of sight from an electricity producing windmill. Waste of all sorts is rigorously recycled. The price for gas is well over $5 per gallon. Although the nasty gas guzzling SUVs have started to show up in Europe, most people still drive sensible gas efficient cars. It is time for the US to get in step with the rest of the world. The consumer mentality in the US is truly something for everyone to be ashamed of. It is high time to change that culture. The points mentioned above will help.
The fifth point “play Paul Revere”, is fine so long as it doesn’t degenerate into a bunch of ‘Chicken Little’ types running around. The world is not coming to an end. There are plenty of sources of energy. We simply have to be more responsible in the ways that we use them.
It is not mentioned in the points above, but nuclear energy will have to play a bigger role in the future. And that will be a hard point for traditional environmentalists to get their heads around. But there are strategies for dealing responsibly with nuclear waste. The Japanese have now developed fuel cycle technologies that leave little waste behind. What Americans refer to as nuclear waste (spent fuel rods), the Japanese refer to as plutonium feed material. They reprocess, recycle, (and in the near future will partition, and transmute). These are all buzz words which essentially mean that they will use nuclear materials to their highest potential. The Japanese are well on their way to total energy security. The US will follow. Safety of operation and control of nuclear materials are of course issues, but they can be responsibly addressed.
The authors are right. Now is no time to be pessimistic. It’s time to step up!