Naomi Klein Unwittingly Carrying Water For Fossil Fuels

[solutions]

.
The following exchange of e-mails is posted in this “Suggested Discussion Outline” section because the posted Outline does NOT reference that voluminous information about thorium fission is available on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org in conjunction with our meetings of 10/10/2012, 9/11/2013 and 4/9/2014, but merely refers to the focus book for our 10/10/2012 meeting with no indication that it was studied for that meeting and, consequently, with the apparent expectation that the reader will obtain the book and read it.


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Naomi Klein Unwittingly Carrying Water For Fossil Fuels
From: Solutions
Date: Mon, February 15, 2016 3:31 pm - MST
To: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear John,

For the 5 months that the proposal of Naomi Klein’s book was pending, as noted in the posting “John Karls Recuses Himself Vis-à-vis Pied Piper Naomi Klein” (contained in the “Participant Comments” section of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org for our 2/17/2016 meeting) you stated in each list of proposals distributed at our monthly meetings to facilitate selection of the following month’s topic, that a substitute organizer/facilitator would be needed for the Klein book because --

“Klein's book is built on a false premise.

“As our group has agreed three times in the past, the only energy source that solves global warming 100%, the only energy source that solves global warming virtually immediately, and the only energy source that is so cheap in comparison to all other energy sources that, for example, it would be unnecessary to invade China to prevent them from continuing to bring on stream a new monster-size coal-fired electric-generation plant every week, etc., etc., is thorium.

“And, yes, we already know that Campaign Contributions (aka bribery of, and extortion by, the pols in the cesspool known as Washington DC) are the reason for the lack of success of our two Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaigns directed at President Obama and our third Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaign directed at Dianne Feinstein when she was Chair of the Senate Subcommittee that had jurisdiction over the Nuclear Fusion Boondoggle.

“I strongly disagree with the proposition that just because the pols will not listen to us because of Campaign Contributions, then we must abandon a real solution and instead embrace a farce approved by the Campaign Contributors.

“Of course the Energy Companies and the Oil-Exporting Countries are NOT going to approve of thorium because it will put all of them out of business overnight. So of course they will prevent that from happening by making Campaign Contributions. And if you think that Foreign Governments can’t make Campaign Contributions because it is against the law, then you should look up the definition of 'conduit' and ask yourself what Washington DC lawyers/lobbyists are. Moreover, many of the Oil-Exporting Countries have made contributions to the Clinton Family Foundation.

“But since everyone is free to recommend whatever book s/he wants, so be it.”

**********
And in commenting on your turning over the reins to Tucker Gurney who had volunteered to be the substitute organizer/facilitator of the 2/17/2016 meeting, your 1/15/2016 e-mail to several of our regulars said, inter alia --

“I am firmly convinced that Naomi Klein is a Pied Piper who, wittingly or not, is helping the pols and their campaign contributors swindle once more the gullible environmentalists. Which is why I am NOT capable of giving Naomi Klein the time of day. Better that you and the Gurneys should be given the reins so that Naomi Klein can be given a fair hearing.”

**********
So are you still “firmly convinced” that Naomi Klein is unwittingly carrying water for fossil fuels?

Your friend,

Solutions


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Re: Naomi Klein Unwittingly Carrying Water For Fossil Fuels
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Mon, February 15, 2016 10:57 pm - MST
To: Solutions
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Solutions,

Thank you very much for your query.

The short answer is yes.

The longer answer???

The last point in the Suggested Discussion Outline raises the issue of whether thorium fission is the real answer, not only to greenhouse-gas emissions but also to many other pressing national problems such as balance-of-payments deficits, energy independence, and Middle Eastern politics.

[The Outline does NOT reference that voluminous information about thorium fission is available on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org in conjunction with our meetings of 10/10/2012, 9/11/2013 and 4/9/2014, but merely refers to the focus book for our 10/10/2012 meeting with no indication that it was studied for that meeting and, consequently, with the apparent expectation that the reader will obtain the book and read it.]

So what does Klein say about thorium fission???

After all, Klein claims repeatedly throughout her book that she spent 5 years researching her topic!!!

Absolutely nothing!!!

How can any self-respecting researcher spend 5 years researching a topic and still fail to stumble over something as important as thorium fission???

Her confession is contained in a footnote on p. 137!!!

She confesses that she has ignored nuclear power, not just thorium fission, because supporters of nuclear power should have to make their case!!!

Rather than Klein studying and reporting on it!!!

Accordingly, her book is a fraud!!!

Because she has obviously buried her confession in a footnote mid-way through her book so that the reader will be fooled into believing that she has actually considered nuclear energy in reaching her conclusions!!!

*****
She does, however, purport to discuss nuclear energy briefly in two parts of her book.

On pp. 57-58, she only manages the criticisms that nuclear energy creates dangerous waste and that there is no “exit strategy” for nuclear energy.

Klein’s unexplained comment about waste displays an incredible ignorance for a variety of reasons!!!

First, the waste to which she is referring is the problem of spent nuclear fuel rods which we addressed in detail in connection with our 4/13/2011 meeting on Fukushima Daiichi.

The U.S. is the only country in the world that has NOT solved the spent-nuclear-fuel-rod problem.

The rest of the world simply re-processes the spent fuel rods!!!

The reason why the U.S. has never re-processed spent fuel rods is that eventually their uranium becomes enriched to weapons grade. However, the U.S. military has never failed to be able to guard its nuclear weapons located in considerably more locations around the world than the number of our civilian nuclear-power plants. Which is why no other civilized country has failed to re-process.

Moreover, our pols decided to store the spent fuel rods at Yucca Mountain in Nevada but that project was blocked by Federal Courts on the grounds that the U.S. Government was only able to prove that Yucca Mountain would be absolutely safe (for example, from earthquake) for 10,000 years!!!

So our pols decided to store the spent fuel rods in cooling pools at each of the commercial nuclear-power plants that generated them.

Since the cooling pools are essentially identical to home swimming pools and virtually all of them are in or near major aviation corridors, a Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaign was launched to have the fuel rods re-processed and guarded like the rest of the civilized world does.

*****
Second, the spent fuel rods are only a problem with conventional uranium!!!

Our long-time regulars will recall that after the successful 18-month continuous thorium-demonstration program in the 1960’s at the U.S. Nuclear-Research Lab at Oak Ridge TN, President Nixon turned the nation away from thorium because it was INCAPABLE OF EXPLODING and he thought it would be cheaper to have civilian nuclear-power plants “piggy back” on the uranium/plutonium weapons program!!!

Thorium fission has an incredibly-high “burn up” rate that leaves virtually no waste.

BTW, uranium and plutonium can be fed into thorium reactors and, indeed, the aforementioned 18-month demonstration project at Oak Ridge did use uranium and plutonium simultaneously with thorium for brief periods.

The significance of this???

If the U.S. does not want to re-process all of its spent uranium fuel rods currently contained in cooling pools distributed around the country in aviation corridors, it could simply dispose of them in thorium reactors.

*****
Klein’s comment about the alleged lack of an “exit strategy” for nuclear energy???

It appears to be based on her ignorance about the problem (or lack thereof) posed by spent uranium fuel rods.

Moreover, it also appears to be based on her studied ignorance of nuclear energy, in general, and thorium fission, in particular.

After all, we have concluded on three different occasions that thorium fission is The Promised Land.

So why would any sane person want to “exit” from The Promised Land???

*****
Klein’s Second Reference to Nuclear Energy

The only time Klein references nuclear energy in addition to pp. 57-58, is pp. 137-138.

This is where, as mentioned above, she confesses in a footnote that she has studiously ignored nuclear energy during her 5 years of research.

She raises only one additional objection to nuclear energy, viz., that it takes too long to construct nuclear-energy plants!!!

Yes, conventional uranium plants take a considerable amount of time because of the opposition to the construction of any nuclear-power plant in the U.S. for more than 3 decades.

Which avoids the inconvenient truth that Klein’s Pied Piper approach of leading an American grass-roots revolution to commit economic suicide is, at least in my opinion, guaranteed to fail -- much less than succeed within the time frame for constructing new uranium plants.

And avoids the inconvenient truth that if Klein had instead chosen to lead a Pied Piper campaign to streamline the approval process for new uranium plants, she might have succeeded in reducing radically the time period for constructing new uranium plants.

And avoids the inconvenient truth that if we could finally convince our pols to re-direct a mere $6 billion of funds for final commercial development of thorium power -- which is readily available from terminating our participation in the nuclear fusion boondoggle on which we focused for our 4/9/2014 meeting -- small safe home-size thorium plants (similar to your basement furnace) could be rolling off the assembly lines in no time flat!!!

Hopefully, American assembly lines!!!

**********
Conclusion Including Two General Comments

Klein spends the first 160 of her 446 pages essentially admitting that renewable energy (wind and solar) are UNECONOMIC. Probably without realizing that she is doing so.

Klein spends the last 154 of her 446 pages focusing on generating a grass-roots campaign to convince Americans to commit economic suicide.

So you asked whether I am still “firmly convinced” that Naomi Klein is unwittingly carrying water for fossil fuels???

By insisting on “tilting with windmills” (pun intended) rather than entering The Promised Land, Klein could not have been a better Pied Piper for the fossil-fuel industry than if the oil-exporting countries and the energy companies had commissioned a good PR firm to invent one.

And I’m cynical enough to believe that if Klein’s publisher had hesitated to accept her book, the oil-exporting countries and the energy companies would have been delighted to underwrite its publication. [And probably, in addition, provide a bribe to the publisher that would dwarf the cost of underwriting the publication.]

Thank you again for your inquiry.

Your friend,

John K.

PS -- Even if Klein succeeds in convincing America to commit economic suicide, there is still the problem posed by other countries. Every one of the many times we have discussed greenhouse-gas emissions, I have asked whether anyone is willing to invade, for example, China to prevent it from continuing to bring on line a new monster-size coal-fired electric-generation plant EVERY WEEK. And so far not one of our attendees has ever been willing to invade China for that purpose. Perhaps Feb 17 will be different.