Use no 37 AGNOTOLOGY - MONBIOTOINETTE

“People always assume that if someone doesn’t know something, it’s because they haven’t paid attention or haven’t yet figured it out. But ignorance also comes from people literally suppressing truth—or drowning it out—or trying to make it so confusing that people stop caring about what’s true and what’s not.” Robert Proctor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnotology

The nuclear agenda relies on agnotology , examples include the proposal to build new nuclear plants at the two greenfield sites in Cumbria, Kirksanton and Braystones. This much publicised move diverted attention, energy and local anger away from the real and insane agenda which is to build "up to nine" new nuclear reactors at Sellafield.
http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/news/reaction-to-sellafield-nuclear-new-build-1.770027?referrerPath=1.137755

George Monbiot's oh so persuasive and persistent (!) proposal to 'let them burn plutonium' is another example of agnotology.
http://www.robedwards.com/2012/01/plutonium-reactor-plan-rejected.html

Meanwhile the plan to bury high level nuclear wastes in Cumbria in order to make yet more high level wastes continues while the Guardianistas arguments churn having taken their cue from "the leading environmental activist and writer" (whose time has come?)

Reducing Brain Size

USE NO 36

REDUCING BRAIN SIZE

Birds living near the site of the Chernobyl accident have 5% smaller brains.
Research led by a University of South Carolina scientist has shown that low dose radiation has proved to have significant effects on brain development.

"birds with smaller brains are not surviving to the next year, perhaps related to decreased cognitive abilities." Mousseau said not only are their brains smaller, but it seems they are not as capable at dealing with their environment as evidenced by their lower rates of survival".

Reduced cognitive ability puts millions of years of evolution into high speed reverse ..

http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?storyCode=2058888

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9387000/9387395.stm

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0016862

LETTER TO SANTA

Use No 35

Letter to Santa

Radiation Free Lakeland have been given a letter from a brave whistleblower: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

The Letter is addressed to Santa and says:

"Dear Santa,

We have been working VERY hard all year to convince Cumbrian Councillors that 'Managing Radioactive Wastes Safely' means mining a BIG hole to dump nuclear wastes in.

As you know, Santa, we need to SOLVE the nuclear waste problem in order to build more nuclear plants.

We have made sure that all the usual movers and shakers in Cumbria are ON MESSAGE OR SILENT.

Please, Santa, keep the GEOLOGICAL DUMP on track.

yours sincerely,
Charles Hendry on behalf of H.M. Govnt"

World's Biggest Hole

USE NO 34

THE WORLD'S BIGGEST HOLE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IgGoMUS6t0

World's biggest hole :
The world’s biggest hole Mirny Diamond Mine is located in Russia. The giant hole is actually a diamond mine in Eastern Siberia. It is 525 meters deep and 1.25 km in the diameter.

Chris Huhne plans to trump that with a hole 1000 meters deep, 26 km square and filled with high level nuclear wastes.

Ever expanding vicious cycle / infinite loop

Border Control Harassment of Chernobyl Children's Charities

Use No 32

If you want new nuclear build the last thing you need is pesky charities bringing children over from Chernobyl. This reminds the carefully groomed UK that nuclear power leads to accident and incident.

The UK Border Agency is stepping up harassment of Chernobyl Children's charities - bizarre given the recent news stories about the failings of Border Control. Radiation Free Lakeland have written to Tim Farron MP to ask that this tactic of harassment is stopped.

At the conference of the European Chernobyl Network in Germany at the weekend, attendees were horrified to hear about the treatment of charities bringing children over from Chernobyl.
Most speakers stated the reason was the UK Government's strong pro-nuclear
stance: Chernobyl children and the snowballing effects of radiation through the generations are not a good advertisement for the development of nuclear power.

http://www.chernobyl-children.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Harrassment-of-Chernobyl-Charities-by-UKBA1.pdf

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/nov/07/border-control-row-gulf-theresa-may

Dumping Democracy

http://www.worldscibooks.com/environsci/7895.html


Use No 31

DUMPING DEMOCRACY

Extract from the excellent, myth busting book:
Contesting the future of nuclear power
Benjamin K Sovacool, World Scientific, 2011.

"In one of its most intractable problems, that of nuclear waste, the
industry has outright manipulated data and limited true public participation
to get its way. Some studies of consumer attitudes and public
opinions have shown that public groups will support nuclear power
expansion if assurances of safe waste disposal are provided, but will not
if the waste problem is not resolved.(113) Thus, nuclear power proponents - trade
groups, vendors, and utilities - have shifted from a technical
discourse, which is full of uncertainty, to a public discourse of inclusive
and respectful public consultation about siting as well as criterions of
acceptability and safety. Yet, one study of such efforts in Canada found
that they do not involve true consultation or participation, whereby
citizens have the chance to influence eventual decisions, and are instead
public relations exercises used to reinvent the industry.(114) Nuclear
groups employ public consultation sessions to (1) demonstrate consent
and approval when they do get it, or (2) construct the public as having
fragmented values and opinions that will never be overcome when they
do not get it, telling regulators they should ultimately defer to the
nuclear industry. This situation does not bode well for democracy, the
study concluded, as the public is co-opted either way. Public consultation
is converted from a means to inform public policy into an end
justifying nuclear expansion".

113 See Frans Berkhout, Radioactive Waste: Politics and Technology (London:
Routledge, 1991); A. Blowers, D. Lowry, and B. Solomon, The International
Politics of Nuclear Waste (New.York: Macmillan, 1991); A. Blowers, "Nuclear
Waste and Landscapes of Risk;' Landscapes Research 24(3) (1999),
pp. 241-264; and Peter Stoett, "Toward Renewed Legitimacy? Nuclear Power,
Global Warming, and Security:' Global Environmental Politics 3(1) (2003),
pp.99-116.

114 Darrin Durant, "Buying Globally, Acting Locally: Control and Co-Option
in Nuclear Waste Management," Science and Public Policy 34(7)
(August, 2007), pp. 515-528.

This extract has been published on 101 Uses.. with the kind permission of Professor Benjamin K Sovacool