Friday, February 13, 2009

NUCLEAR WINTER


This recent photo of frozen Lake Erie shows plumes from two nuclear power plants. The one on the right is Fermi II, in Michigan. I’m not sure what and where the other one is; could possibly be in Ohio.

"Nuclear winter" is a phrase we don't hear much in our post-Cold War times. More often these days we hear about "impact winter" (comet or asteroid strike) or a "volcanic winter" (super-volcanic eruption), but new science predicts dire global effects from even a "limited" exchange any where on the planet. I hope we know what we're doing! And while we're at it, let's get those non-polluting green energy sources up and running. From my Ontario backyard I see these striking plumes in different sizes and colors under different atmospheric conditions. They can look beautiful, but I never forget what they are, and the fearsome power they represent.

10 comments:

Squirrel said...

Wow. They do look pretty and the colors in the photo are just lovely. Sadly we have a nuclear power plant on the Hudson River( north of us, up by Sing Sing prison) And even more sadly, the late actor, Paul Newman toured the facility and proclaimed it safe and a good idea to keep open. People like RFK jr were trying to get it to shut down for years, they put in so much effort. no luck yet.

Squirrel said...

That Ohio is such a troublemaker!

bobbie said...

We need green energy sources SO badly and SOON. Must keep reminding Mr. Obama to get on it, fast!

Sylvia K said...

I never fails to amaze me how so many people just turn their back on the obvious, shrug their shoulders and say what can I do??? Like Bobbie said, we do need green energy sources so badly! But everyone is so worried these days about their pocketbooks, that they don't look any further.

Kat Mortensen said...

Yeah, did you hear about that spill up at Chalk River a while back? They just seem to sweep these things under the carpet and hope noone notices. What are we thinking?!!!

It is a gorgeous sky, however.

Kat

Great Grandma Lin said...

interesting title nuclear winter...I have mixed feeling about nuclear power but that's probably because I don't live near it. We do have lots of coal powered plants in utah unfortunately.

Glennis said...

Pretty but rather poisonous plumes.
Global warming is getting scary.
We don't have nuclear power in NZ fortunately. But we do use our lovely rivers, build dams across them and ruin the river life. But we all need and use power it must be made somehow.

Quiet Paths said...

Wise thoughts and words with a contrasting lovely photo. I'm with Bobbie, send those letters into the administration calling for immediate action on greener energy sources.

Anonymous said...

Hello from our Guildwood Village -
"Green Energy" how green is it really??
How can you justify the destruction of one environment, including wetlands and bird sanctuaries & wildlife to save another environment??
I am not an opponent to so called "Green Energy",
but not everything what is labelled is green is green.
What ever that means..
We have to keep an open mind and look at all the options available today. That includes nuclear, waste to energy, solar power and wind turbines.
But fistly, we have to conserve more, and use less.
- Cheers.

Deborah Godin said...

@ guild-rez You raise an extremely important point/question. It's one of my main objections to wind energy as anything other than a limited transitional solution. I hope you can read the post I put up after this one, and check out The Orion Project. Their green energy is based on "free" and extremely low impact energy technologies. Many of these solutions have been actively suppressed for decades by Big Oil and other interests; patents purchased from inventors and shelved, etc.