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Nuclear power’s role in our energy future will doubtless play a large part in the forthcoming COP21 talks in Paris.
Long-cited as the “safe” and “carbon friendly” alternative to fossil fuels, even environmental stalwarts like George Monbiot promote nukes, if only for the transitional period required for the world to switch to CO2-free forms of energy generation.
But does nuclear power really buy us time when its downstream by-products are an eternal threat?
John LaForge is a long-time staffer at Nukewatch, the Wisconsin-based nuclear watchdog and environmental justice group. His countless articles on the topic have appeared in Nukewatch’s quarterly and at online sites like: New Internationalist, Z Magazine, The Progressive, Earth Island Journal and at CounterPunch.org, where I found his latest, ‘Exploding Radioactive Waste Warning: Keep It Above Ground’ a disturbing account of a homegrown nuclear emergency you probably haven’t heard about.
John is co-recipient of the US Peace and Justice Studies Association’s 2004 Social Courage Award, and is a 1986 War Resisters League Peace Awardee who has spent in total more than four years in prisons and jails for his non-violent resistance to our war system.
John LaForge in the first segment.
And; the World became a distinctly more dangerous place yesterday with the shooting down by Turkey of a Russian warplane. That the two Russian pilots were reportedly shot dead* as they hung in their parachutes, and the body of at least one paraded across social media, makes a Turkish walkback from its actions, and any Russian face-saving measure, even more difficult. Turkey’s actions are, in the opinion of my second segment guest, the gravest crisis NATO has ever faced – seeing one of its members unilaterally provoking war with a regional Superpower.
Patrick Henningsen is a freelance journalist and co-founder of the online news site, 21st Century wire, launched during the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. Patrick’s geopolitical analyses and commentaries are featured online at RT and Al Jazeera, and of course at 21Wire, where he’s been working overtime these past two weeks since the attacks in Paris, and now covering this stunning development over Syria.
Patrick Henninsen and what bitter grist Turkey’s shootdown brings to NATO’s table in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFIV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us newz of the coming week from our city’s streets, and beyond there too. But first; John LaForge and “when it rains it burns,” Nevada’s little-known nuclear mishap.
