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October 12, 2005
Heading for the Freezer?
The weather office is predicting that we could be heading for the coldest winter in a decade in the UK. Quite how they have arrived at this decision in the midst of a very mild Autumn (the Monk, used to far warmer climes, has only just had to consider firing up his heating system for a couple of hours each night!) and in the face of all the wild eyed "Friends of the Earth" propaganda about the seas getting hotter, the climate changing to tropical in these Northern climes and the desertification of Europe, I am not quite sure. But, I guess it makes good headlines - especially when the CBI and others are put on alert that they may have to accept business shutdown if we run out of fuel.
Are we likely to run short of fuel or power?
Well, the short answer is yes. Thanks to short-termism and complete lack of forward planning by either the government or the Whitehall Whallahs, we are slowly running out of North Sea gas and haven't yet started to build up alternative supplies or even tap into the reservoirs that do exist off the South Coast and in the Irish Sea. Then there is the whole debate about how we will power our cities in the future - and predictably the "all nuclear power stations are H-Bombs" brigade have come out screaming because the government has dared to suggest that wind and other "renewable" sources will not be sufficient to our needs and we must look at nuclear power to fill in the growing gaps.
Well, if they want to freeze their nuts off in a power blackout that's their concern. Properly managed, nuclear power stations are a lot safer than the coal fired and gas fired versions - primarily because they do not kill quite so many in the fuel supply as the coal and gas ones do - and they do, when properly managed (NOT by a bunch of arrogant and stupid civil servants!) produce clean and safe electricity. As long as no one tries to play silly buggers with the safety systems as they did at Chernobyl, and as long as we are talking PWR or GCR systems, we are in fact talking about a whole different ball game.
Anyway, a cold winter in this neck of the woods will probably be a very good thing for a change as it will clear out a lot of the invading insects and some other "invaders" that have been growing in numbers for some years now.
It will also give the hysterical "Global Warming" anoraks something else to yammer about for a change!
Posted by The Gray Monk at October 12, 2005 05:06 PM
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