Watched the Marcel Theroux (how many more Theroux’s are there?) documentary The End Of the World as We Know It last night. Pretty depressing. Irreversible damage to the planet may be done in as little as 20 years from now (i.e., within our lifetime but longer than the lifetime of most political administrations) due to high carbon emissions and what little we are doing about it is simply too little. Various alternative energy forms (tidal, wind, etc) were looked at and rejected as not being efficient enough as well as having other problems.

James Lovelock, father of the Green Movement and originator of the Gaia Theory proposed that nuclear power is the safest and most effective energy source. Marcel then visited Chernobyl to see what it’s like there nearly 20 years after the disaster there. That was pretty harrowing but we were told how the “occasional Chernobyl” would still be less harmful to the planet than our current usage of fossil fuels. I felt encouraged by the return of animals and plant life to an evacuated town near Chernobyl: at least flora and fauna could survive our attempts to break the planet even if we don’t.

Whilst “safe” nuclear fuel may be possible it is currently a political kiss of death for any political party. so who will build them? If countries do build new nuclear power plants, how will they dispose of the waste? What happens if the waste gets in the “wrong hands”?

As if this wasn’t enough Marcel then flitted over to India to point out that as developing countries like India and China become more affluent and more industrial their energy demands will increase and further add to climate change effects.

Sadly, most people in Britain wanted to complain to the BBC about the screening of Jerry Springer The Opera rather than hassle their MP about saving the planet.