If so, there were a lot of hangovers in heaven this morning because yesterday George Monbiot announced his support for nuclear power – first in his Guardian column, then later on BBC2’s Newsnight. Yes, it's true. If you don't believe it, read on and see and hear the evidence for yourself.
Monbiot is about to discover what it is like to be out of step with the “green consensus.” In fact, it’s already started. Already, on a Channel 4 discussion forum, this comment has appeared (edited because it’s pretty dull):
“Did I dream it or did George Monbiot finally fully induct himself into the prize fools hall of fame last night on Newsnight? ... So, after 30 years, to be treated to the spectacle of George Monbiot's public endorsement [of] nuclear power as the ultimate solution to global warming indicates the whole environmental movement is in crisis and has come full circle after 30 years to betray its founding myth … Someone once said of Enoch Powell that he was driven mad by the remorseless of his own logic. That could equally apply to the sad figure of George Monbiot.”
But the inevitability of George’s conversion to nuclear should not come as a surprise. He gave a strong hint of movement in that direction in a column in 2006 [edited, and with emphasis added]:
“If someone had worked out how to cause a war within the environment movement, they could not have developed a better means than nuclear power. In public, we will line up to attack the energy review published by the government today. In private we will reserve some of our venom for each other, as we start to ask ourselves whether we have made the right decision.
“The UK’s dying nuclear power stations are, at the moment, its principal source of low-carbon energy. Electricity produced by a pressurised light water reactor, when all its carbon costs have been taken into account, emits around 16 tonnes of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour. Gas produces 356 tonnes and coal 891. If our nuclear power stations are replaced by thermal plants, the UK’s annual output of CO2 will rise by roughly 51 million tonnes, or 8% of the total.
“Zac Goldsmith, arguing against new nukes, calls this percentage “miniscule”. This is breathtaking. We campaign to prevent electrical appliances being left on standby, hoping to save some 4 million tonnes of CO2 a year. How can we then dismiss a cut 13 times as great?
“Anti-nuclear campaigners have a tendency to believe anything that casts the industry in a bad light. Last month’s edition of the Ecologist magazine, for example, contends that 14 million tonnes of concrete are required to build a nuclear power station, resulting in a massive release of carbon dioxide. Specifications are notoriously hard to come by, but I have managed to find the figures for Calder Hall A, opened in 1956. It used 72,500 cubic yards of concrete, which equates to 108,000 metric tonnes, or less than 1% of the Ecologist’s estimate. Modern power stations are smaller.”
When Greenpeace invented the anti-GM scare in the late 1990s, Monbiot ridiculed Prince Charles, who talked of “the spirit of the Earth rustling through the trees … crying out against GM crops.” Jonathon Porritt, of course came to the defence of Prince Chuck because he has the most enormous man-crush on our nitwit heir to the throne. And Monbiot’s opinion of playboy dilettante Zac Goldsmith and his Ecologist magazine (inherited from his even-more nitwit uncle Edward) can be judged from the language in the quote above.
Everyone in the environmental movement sniggers behind Goldsmith’s back because of his incredible ignorance on just about every matter except poker. Of course they never laugh to his face because the £300 million he inherited from his asset-stripper daddy buys an awful lot of “respect”.
George Monbiot is one of the few “environmentalists” who has a science degree. He has always been pretty contemptuous of the Nitwit Wing of greenism, and his conversion to nuclear at least shows that he actually believes in dangerous climate change.
The Green Nitwit tendency wants either disastrous climate change or wants to saboutage future energy supplies - anything to collapse the world economy. Either way, their long wet dream is for a return to a pre-industrial fantasyland where the corn is golden, the peasants are happy and Environmentalists supervise the hard work from the country house. It is, quite literally, an eco-fascist dream straight from the pages of Mein Kampf.
One of the most sad and touching (but most revealing) moments in the Monbiot vs. Porritt debate came with George’s plea:
“If we can’t debate this without being accused of selling-out …”
Hey George, now you know how it feels to be on the receiving end!
As a bonus, Monbiot appeared on the Today Programme this morning to be attacked for green miserabalism by Julie Burchill.
Audio from the Burchill vs Monbiot debate and a debate between Monbiot and Jonathon Porritt on nuclear power is available on a later post above.
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