Fusion-I Told You So // Steven Hayward
Yesterday’s preview of the announcement about a fusion energy breakthrough included a prediction that environmentalists will oppose fusion if it becomes practical some day down the line.
Silly me, environmentalists staked out this position 33 years ago!
You may remember the 1989 sensational announcement made by two scientists from Utah that they had developed “cold Fusion.” However, it turned out to be nonsense and even a hoax. It’s not important. The Los Angeles Times published an article titled, ” Fear Of Fusion: What If It Does?” This article covers the technophobia, Malthusianism and misanthropy we all love about the greens.
Now that the initial waves of wonder, astonishment and euphoria are over, some scientists, environmentalists, and activists have started to have more troubling thoughts. One, they claim that even if desktop-fusion does work, which is still a mystery, it is not clear if the power generated will be as cheap and clean as some have suggested.
Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford biologist, says that even if it were, the prospect for cheap, inexhaustible power through fusion is “like a machine gun being given to an idiot child” because of society’s poor record in managing technology.
Washington-based author and activist Jeremy Rifkin laments, “It is the worst thing that could possibly happen to our planet.”
He argues that inexhaustible power only gives man an unlimited ability to exhaust the planet’s resources, destroy its fragile balance, and create unimaginable amounts of human and industrial waste…
Laura Nader, UC Berkeley anthropologist, says that many people believe that cheaper, more plentiful energy will make them better off. However, the quality of life indicators have declined in the euphoria surrounding fusion power.
Rifkin states that “The Age of Progress” is a figment. 800 million people are going to bed hungry right now, more than ever before. “There has never been an earlier example of this. Yet, we continue to believe that this is the Age of Progress. . .
Paul Ehrlich, Old Reliable, is the best of this old article. Enjoy this:
Paul Ehrlich, a proponent of fusion, notes that commercial applications of their work will be at least 20 years away. It will be at least 30 years before fusion power can have a significant impact. Ehrlich says that fusion is irrelevant in this sense because the world will have long since succumbed over-population, global warming, and acid rain. ]
In the 33 years that have passed since his statement, I somehow managed to miss my face melting from acid rain and the mass starvation.
However, you can expect the article to be recycled as soon as possible.
