Greenpeace

When I was a child, Greenpeace was firmly against nuclear power. In fact, today Greenpeace remains fundamentally against the use of nuclear power. In the 70s and early 80s, the anti nuclear movement, fronted by Greenpeace and others, was so powerful that it essentially brought the nuclear industry to a halt. Plans to build nuclear power stations were scrapped, and traditional coal and gas fired stations were built instead.

So what do I find on my way to work at Didcot this morning? Between 15 and 30 Greenpeace eco warriors have broken into the power station and chained themselves to equipment to protest about coal fired power stations. Coal fired power stations that would never have been built if it hadn't been for the anti-nuclear protests 30 years ago. I actually wrote a paper almost predicting just this kind of event about 10 years ago at universtity when I visited the same power station. It didn't score well, but I was right.

On a positive note, the Greenpeace eco-warriors have painted a giant anti-Blair message down the side of the power station chimney. While they falsely blame Blair for the coal fired power stations when they should be taking a long hard look in the mirror, it is nice to see that they loath Blair. One wonders who Greenpeace would advise voting for. I wonder if it might be Cameron since he does have a windmill on his roof.

Greenpeace have also placed a huge advert in today's Times newspaper. Presumeably it is to coincide with the assault on the power station. They claim that smaller, localised power stations could be used more eficiently to generate power and heat people's homes as a by product instead of using cooling towers. I'm assuming that cooling towers are still required in those months when home heating is not required.

The above was written friday, but not posted until today, Sunday, for reasons of gross idleness. I have a day off work tomorrow.