First, what I find interesting is how being green has become fashionable. Bruce Sterling’s ‘Viridian Manifesto‘, which when I read it was one of of those ‘wow!’ moments, was the first time I ever heard anyone say that being ‘green’ required the wealthy to find it a desirable way to live. He suggested that energy meters needed to be seen as ‘luxurious’, solar and wind power should be sold at a premium to only those who can afford it and that ‘fouling the air’ when we turn on a light “should be considered the stigma of the crass proletarian”. (When I met Bruce Sterling at LIFT a couple years ago, I told him how important the Viridian Manifesto was to me. A year after that, he and I talked about nuclear power for which he is a supporter, albeit a reluctant one.)

I’m not new to the whole environmental thing, which is why when I’ve been attacked and talked to like an idiot by people when talking about green issues it really makes me angry. It also makes me angry when people who hardly know me, and certainly don’t listen to me, claim that I have ‘entrenched beliefs’ because I support nuclear power. Actually, I’ve been told that when you look in the dictionary for ‘un-entrenched beliefs’ there’s just a picture of me there. I’ve not seen that myself, but it sounds right. I am ALL ABOUT questioning ‘beliefs’ which means that my views change. I allow them to change based on facts and information I learn. What I don’t do is blindly follow something I heard 30 years ago, continue to believe it without question and only look to other believers for information which validates my belief. That’s “religion”.

OK. The ways in which I’m consciously “green” (from this post):

“I started recycling before it was fashionable. I used to walk carrying bags filled with glass, paper and cans to the nearest recycling containers. Then I used to ride my bike with all the recycling. I did this for well over 10 years before my council started home collections [about 10 years ago]. I used washable nappies with my [now 11 year old] son. I’ve not used disposable menstrual products for 10 years now. I’ve used cloth shopping bags one out of two times I go shopping for over 10 years now. I filled my toilet cisterns with bottles of water eons ago. I have never left the tap running when I brush my teeth and go INSANE when Brian does it. I have a water meter [cos I use much less water than 'the average']. Half of the lightbulbs in my house are those horrible fluorescent things. I’m obsessive about turning off lights in rooms I’m not using and regularly go around turning off all the lights Brian and my son have left on (and shouting at them about it). I wash my clothes at 30 degrees (C). I’ve never owned a clothes drier. I’ve owned three different cars – two were Fiat 500s [they are smaller than a classic Mini], one is Brian’s old Ford Focus- all of them were bought when I was working daily in a place which took 1.5 hours each way to get to via public transport. When my son was in nursery school I would ride 20 miles a day on my bike taking him to and from school. When he was in primary school, we’d take the bus. Whereas before I got rid of my other cars fairly soon after finishing my job, I’ve kept this car for 3 years because I need it. Either I drive him to school in 15 minutes or it takes up to 45 minutes on the bus – each way, there, back, there, back. I don’t have the time for an extra 2 hours of travelling a day to take public transport. I could go on…”

…I only buy recycled paper products, I shop every 1-2 days so that I don’t have wasted food, I use rechargeable batteries in pretty much everything, I buy trees instead of flowers for gifts, I’ve mainly worked from home or only a few days per week outside my home for over 15 years so have hardly had any daily travel, I have not had a bathtub for over 10 years (showers use about 1/3 of the water that baths do), I was vegetarian up until 3 years ago, now I eat meat or fish only a couple times a week…. I just do this stuff kinda naturally without any fuss and without piously going on about it to all and sundry… (er, well, except for just now)

Why?

Cos it makes me feel good. In the same way that tidying up your home or garden makes you feel good. Doing things that I know will help to make the air just a *tiny* bit less polluted and won’t add as much to landfill sites, makes me happy. I do it purely for emotional reasons. Intellectually, I KNOW what I do doesn’t actually help the environment much at all.

What?! Heresy!! Denier!! That’s what you’re apparently supposed to shout at someone who doesn’t go on about how we need to do ‘more’ to protect the environment or how we’re all going to die in a horrible globally warmed-up hellfire death or who says anything that goes slightly against the environmental lobby’s idea of what we should do and how we should think. I’m *not* a “Global Warming Denier” at all, but as far as I can tell from the behaviour of environmental extremists, one cannot even question anything nor can one try and think differently about anything without being attacked. It’s happened time and time again.

The UK emits 2.2% of the total human produced CO2 in the atmosphere, which, incidentally, is just less than the total CO2 emitted by every single plane flying from every single airport in the whole entire world. My “green” efforts probably have as much environmental impact as one first class seat on one plane (which has LESS of an environmental impact than an economy seat as first class passengers’ seats take up the space of three economy seats and therefore don’t add as much weight to the plane… but I digress)…

If we in the UK continue to beat ourselves up and really make our lives absolutely crap with self-denial and miserableness and amazingly find a way of cutting our CO2 output by 20% (pffffft!), we’ll only be lowering the worldwide human produced CO2 emissions by .44%. Is that puny amount really worth all the hassle, cost, inconvenience and effort? Is it?!

Assuming that CO2 emissions are divided equally across the entire UK population of 60 million people, I am personally responsible for… well… I think .000000003% of the human produced CO2. Each American on the other hand is responsible for .00000007% – that’s about 25 TIMES more than me. So, according to UK environmentalists, I need to make things even more difficult for myself (and let me tell you, *not* using disposable menstrual products takes some fucking commitment) so that the average American can continue to produce a ridiculously high amount of CO2? Really?

I refuse to feel ‘guilty’ about my lifestyle. It is not excessive nor is it wasteful nor is it actually destroying the planet. For a ‘middle class’ person, living in a wealthy Western country, the way I live is pretty low impact.

OK… maybe I should answer the ‘what things should I do in a more eco-friendly way, but don’t’ question…

Bah. Fuck it. I do loads more than most people already… I’m going to do what Alan says at the end of his post: “I am changing my green strategy from all that hard self denial stuff to badgering our American readers to go Green For Me.”

Along with trying to encourage Americans to take up the baton for a while, I will continue talking to people about nuclear power in order to try and make up for the misinformation and lies about it coming from the extremist environmentalists for the past few decades. I will also continue to talk about the need for VASTLY more energy use worldwide in order to bring the developing world clean water, electricity and sanitation for a start.

This is why the environmental whackies bug me so much. So, I sometimes fly in planes. And? So I own a car, which I drive less than 4,000 miles per year. And? Stop bugging me and stop deluding yourself that we just need to stick up a few windmills and solar panels. What about the billion people in the world who don’t have access to safe water? What about the 2.6 billion who live without basic sanitation? What about the quarter of the world’s population who don’t have access to electricity? What about the 2.5 billion people who rely on biomass for their cooking which results in indoor air pollution killing 4000 people a day (more than those who die of malaria)? And you think we’re going to help billions of people whilst LOWERING the world’s energy usage?!

Solar panels my arse.

I also would invite you to look into the total per capita *energy* use in the UK, the US, France and Belgium. Then look at their per capita CO2 emissions. Then look at the percentage of their electricity that is provided by nuclear power. (If you can’t be bothered: A) the order of per capita energy usage from highest to lowest: 1.US 2.Belgium 3. France 4. UK B) the order of their per capita CO2 emissions highest to lowest: 1. United States 2. UK 3. Belgium 4. France C) Percentage of nuclear power highest to lowest: 1. France 2. Belgium 3. UK 4.US… Work it out.)

So, there you have my take on it: being green is good and desirable because we want clean air and don’t want our landfills to be filled up unnecessarily. Worldwide CO2 reduction is a good thing because we don’t want runaway global warming. The UK contributes a tiny amount of the CO2. We should encourage our American friends to do more to lower their CO2 emissions. We should support nuclear power because we MUST use VASTLY more energy worldwide in order to provide a decent standard of living to everyone in the world. One in two children in the world are living in abject poverty. We need to help them.

Now who should I ping? How about Sizemore, Fiz and Seth? I always enjoy hearing what Sizemore has to say. Fiz is “phab” and as an Australian, I’m sure, will have a load of interesting things to add to the conversation. And Seth cos I love his mind AND he’s in the US and it’d be nice to get an American perspective.

I thought I would use the opportunity to re-post some of the articles I wrote for the Potential Energy project I did 18 months ago (Here are all of my articles)

This one is about RADIATION and was originally posted here on May 30, 2006.

Radiation is the one thing that scares most people about the whole idea of “nuclear”. Radiation Sickness, Radiation Burns, Radioactive Fallout… Again, I think most people’s ideas about “nuclear” were formed during the Cold War when, quite rightly, we all had a lot to fear from the threat of nuclear war. Let’s all just get one thing straight:

Nuclear Power Is Not Nuclear War.

They are as different as Jedis and Siths in ‘Star Wars’. Both Jedis and Siths use the Force. Jedis use it for good, Siths use it for evil. The Force itself is not inherently evil nor inherently good. Likewise, nuclear fission itself is not a moral nor immoral process. To approach it as anything other than amoral is as daft as believing there is some innate goodness or badness in ‘water’.

Anyway, the question ‘what exactly is radiation’ was top of my mind over the bank holiday weekend as my husband- a high-energy particle physicist at CERN- and I wandered around picturesque villages in the Pennines. While downing pints in the pub he gave me a first year physics course on radiation. This is what I learned:

Very basically, radiation is energy that is emitted in the form of electromagnetic waves or particles. There are lots of different types of radiation that you may have heard of: Solar Radiation, Thermal Radiation, Cosmic Radiation, Hawking Radiation… The most well-known kind of radiation, however, is Electromagnetic Radiation.

Electromagnetic Radiation is what allows you to listen to the radio or to quickly cook your food in your microwave oven as Radio Waves and Microwaves are on the low frequency end of the Electromagnetic Radiation spectrum.

Another type of Electromagnetic Radiation is Light – Infrared, Visible and Ultraviolet Light. Visible light is, of course, the light we see, Infrared is the type of light used in night vision equipment and Ultraviolet light is what tans our skin when we are outside.

If you’ve ever had an Xray at the doctor or the dentist, you’ve been bombarded with Electromagnetic Radiation. Xrays pass through the soft tissues of your body, but are blocked by dense tissues such as teeth or bones.

The highest frequency Electromagnetic Radiation is called Gamma Rays. Gamma Rays are produced in PET scans, astrophysical phenomena such as Gamma Ray bursts or in radioactive decay.

It’s important to point out that the boundary between what one calls Xrays and what one calls Gamma Rays can be vague – for example, a photon with an energy of 10 keV can be called either an Xray or a Gamma Ray. ALL types of Electromagnetic Radiation are photons, the only difference being the amount of energy carried by the photon.

For our purposes the only other types of radiation we need to be concerned with are Alpha Radiation, Beta Radiation and Neutron Radiation- all occur as result of nuclear fission either natural or man-made.

Alpha Radiation is essentially the same as a helium atom. The only difference being it doesn’t have any electrons. It only travels a few centimetres in the air and can be stopped by a piece of tissue paper.

Beta Radiation is the release of an electron from a neutron rich element. They have a range of a few metres in the air and can be stopped by a few millimetres of aluminium.

Neutron Radiation is made up of ‘free’ neutrons. It is a concern as it is very good at making almost everything it encounters radioactive. Neutron radiation is very penetrating, but can be shielded by water, plastic, borated metals, and concrete. No little animation, I’m afraid.

We are all immersed in naturally occurring radiation- from the buildings we live and work in, the food we eat, Cosmic Rays from space, medical treatments. Radon Gas makes up the majority of our annual radiation dose.

The levels of Radon Gas fluctuates depending on things like the geological make-up of the area or whether you open your windows or not. Simply by spending two weeks on holiday in Cornwall, you will receive more radiation in a year than you would living next to a nuclear power plant.

Too much radiation, as we all know, can be harmful…. but how much is ‘too much’ and do the different types of radiation have different effects on our bodies? My next post I will look into the effects of radiation on the human body.

Also read: Half-Term Half-Life and Kylie, Cornwall or Reactor Cores?.

January

Me and Charlie Brooker

I was doing lots of stuff for Sunshine and Channel4.com, saw Ben Folds in concert, the Sunshine trailer was leaked by resourceful fans and I was interviewed for Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe.

February

/Cat blog

MASSIVE Sunshine stuff, loads of Channel 4 stuff, went to LIFT where Brian spoke and my Screepwipe interview was broadcast.

Watch Video

March

Danny Boyle on the Sunshine set

I know the photo above wasn’t taken in March, but the month was so freakin’ mental I didn’t take any photos. I was doing 7 days a week, 18 hour days mainly for Sunshine- press and bloggers’ screenings, press interviews, cast and crew screening, Manchester screening, messageboards, emails, IMDB, generally mentalness. There was also Channel 4 stuff, a discussion I took part in at the ICA, went to Cambridge with Brian who spoke at their Science Festival… and I’ve also got ‘Milton Keynes’ in my diary on the 16th. I’ve got no memory of what that was about at all.

April

Danny Boyle, Cillian Murphy, Brian

Another insane month. Sunshine was released, screening and Q&A with Danny at the Ritzy cinema, trip to Russia for the premiere, the 28 Weeks Later premiere… and I bought some ‘Sunshine’ props and costumes. :)

May

Tiger in my face

My Sunshine props and costumes were delivered. :) Was starting to get properly frustrated with the Channel 4 stuff, was weaning off Sunshine, I went to the Arthur C. Clarke Awards nominations, did a Social Media Club photo walk with Lloyd, went to Anna and Julian’s wedding and started looking at secondary schools for my son.

June

Brian at the Star Wars exhibition

Trying to get back into life and recover generally from Sunshine insanity. Sunshine was at the IMAX, spoke at Music Tank, Daywatch screening, more secondary school stuff (including an entrance exam… yikes!)

July

Me at the Gormley exhibition

Secondary school interview (yikes!), started on the Sunshine DVD release, bit of Daywatch work, David Hoyle started Magazine again… my son was offered a place at a secondary school (yay!)

August

Brian, Mo, Benny Wong, Cliff Curtis

Sunshine DVD release, 28 Weeks Later DVD release, Daywatch, more David Hoyle at Magazine… QR Codes.

September

QR Codes

QR Codes for 28 Weeks Later, interviewed about QR on various tv and radio programmes, my son started at his new school, I was invited to talk to the Nuclear Industry Association, recorded the Nature podcast sponsor stings, went to more David Hoyle shows, saw Prince’s final aftershow gig, got properly ill.

October

CERN

Still ill. Started working on a project looking at the Ageing Population, went to CERN twice – the first time with Kevin Eldon and Simon Munnery, the second time with Quentin Wilson- took part in a Nuclear Industry Association roundtable discussion, met Arvind from Slingshot Studios.

November

David Hoyle

Lots of meetings, dinners and lunches. Ageing Project roundtable meeting and dinner… And, of course, the wonderful David Hoyle.

December

My father came to visit, I attended the Juno bloggers’/Twitterers’ screening, fell in LOVE with ‘Juno’ (you’ll be hearing more about this), started Twittering (finally), went to see the King Tut exhibition, attended the Nuclear Industry Association annual dinner, my son had his birthday, recorded a Digital Planet with Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson, more talks with Slingshot Studios, David Soul…then…

…today.

After all that, I really need to rest over the next few weeks. I feel like I’ve still not recovered from my illness properly and still need to catch up on all of the sleep I lost last spring with Sunshine… My next 10 days will consist of POWER RESTING. I won’t do any work (except for watching the pile of screeners I’ve got), I won’t worry about whether or not I’ll have any work in the new year… I will just relax in the most hardcore way…

You can download the PDF from the New Statesman’s site.

This summer the DTI Energy Review is going to announce its decision about whether or not they will commit to building new nuclear power plants to replace the ones which will be de-commissioned over the next 30 years.

The independent watchdog, the Sustainable Development Commission, has looked into the issue and decided that nuclear power isn’t the way forward. Their findings are not the government’s final decision.

There doesn’t seem to be a government-led public consultation before they make their decision this summer. Our job on the Potential Energy project is to instigate and encourage that public discussion…

None of the writers on the project are nuclear experts, yet all of us have an open mind about nuclear power. Over the next 10 weeks I invite all of you in the UK (and elsewhere, of course) to come along, engage in the conversation and let your voice be heard. So far everyone commenting on the site is pro-nuclear… are there any anti-nuclear people out there?