Authentic Environmentalism


When most environmentalists discuss alternative energy sources that might replace the burning of fossil fuels, nuclear power is routinely not included in the mix. This might be the biggest mistake of our modern era since nuclear energy may well be the best solution for global warming. A realistic, untainted-by-the-Hiroshima Syndrome evaluation of the most environmentally appropriate alternatives to the burning of fossil fuels for the production of electricity must include nuclear power plants! An environmentalist who embraces all non-polluting electric power production methods, but rejects the nuclear option, is not an authentic environmentalist. Total environmental authenticity includes nuclear, regardless of prior personal opinion on the matter. The authentic environmentalist is accurately informed, unbiased, realistic, and avoids politically expedient misuse of information.

With respect to the commonly identified renewable sources of electricity, solar and wind, most environmentalists are well informed. But with respect to nuclear electricity sources, the Hiroshima Syndrome has produced a psychologically crippling environmentalist bias. By understanding the fictions that predicate the Hiroshima Syndrome and rejecting the misconceptions it has spawned which are held as paradigm, environmentalists can overcome their understandable bias against nuclear power plants and begin to approach true authenticity.

The authentic environmentalist rejects the biases created by the Hiroshima Syndrome and conversely embraces…

  1. Confusion between reactors and nuclear weapons is resolvable.
  2. Confusion between weapon’s fallout and radiation-itself is resolvable.
  3. Everything in our universe is naturally radioactive.
  4. Low level radiation is safe and actually benefits organic life.
  5. Exhausted nuclear fuel is recyclable and its "waste" atoms are a valuable resource for the future of mankind.
  6. The accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl have produced no long term health effects.
  7. Operation of nuclear power plants produces no greenhouse gasses.
  8. Nuclear energy is as natural as solar and wind energy.
  9. The fastest “solution” to global warming must be a realistic combination of solar, wind, and nuclear.

Nuclear power plants do not pollute the environment and leave no carbon footprint in their operational wake. The authentic environmentalist will not reject the nuclear option by ruthlessly clinging to the fatally-flawed no-safe-level theory with respect to low exposures of radiation. The authentic environmentalist will not reject the nuclear option because our government cannot decide on the best place to bury exhausted nuclear fuel, when recycling is clearly the most logical and appropriate option. The authentic environmentalist will not continue the ethically repugnant practice of mercilessly adhering to historical estimates of human deaths from nuclear power plant accidents which the passage of time has shown to be entirely incorrect. The authentic environmentalist will have none of this. The authentic environmentalist will be pro-renewables and pro-nuclear!

For a greener, cleaner planet...