Glenn Reynolds had a piece this morning in the NY Post about alternative energy sources, particularly nuclear. I know where it needs to happen first.
Haiti’s natural resources are spent. Malthus’s thesis has come to life there, to death. As long as there’s any value to it, however marginal, given the poverty, there’s going to be someone willing to burn whatever’s available for fuel. What’s the solution? I think it’s to plant a large nuclear power plant cum military base in the middle of Hispaniola to produce all the power that the island requires. The Dominican Republic has to be included, so that there’s no cheating over the border.
In my view, this is the only way that Haiti can be reforested without massive depopulation, without an even greater human catastrophe. The UN clearly cannot be trusted with a project of this sort; it has to be NATO, led by the US, or better, an alliance of American states. You make power so cheap that it’s not worthwhile robbing someone else’s resources . . . then you can begin to address the rest.
Nuclear. Humane. Green. With the global food crunch, due to the energy crunch and its mismanagement, this is what needs to happen. I mean, unless you don’t care about black folk.
UPDATE: And go buy your basmati now.
That’s very wise. But I think we could swing it as a joint project with Canada. They’re very into Haiti, and also France is in NATO.
Pshaw! I’ve only had 5 beers!
Also, NPR says that you can “cook once, eat twice” cause reheating dinner takes a lot less energy and saves you time and also the ice caps. Great tip! Maybe we could print some leaflets and drop them over there or something.
While we’re dropping leaflets, could we also drop some polar bear cutlets?
They’re yummy and they taste great the next day. Kinda like fried chicken that way.
The Association of Caribbean States would be the natural group, and France is an associate member, and they’ve got the major experience with nuke electricity. If ACS thinks that NATO assistance would be a plus, that’s the entre there as well. ACS as the driving authority would help ensure Dominican integrity, and, honestly, clean cheap nuke power could be a major boon to the whole basin.
If Hispaniola is so impoverished, why not airlift them folks offa the stupid rock and give them the jobs Americans won’t do.
Furthermore, it drives me crazy when people push solar. Hello? Clouds! Shade from trees! Are we to cover the earth in shiny solar panels that block the sun from the earth’s flora?
I mean, I’m a dicentra, who can thrive in the shade, but most of my brethren aren’t so lucky, namely food crops, who need 8 hours of sun a day.
Sheez. Always forgetting about the clouds, aren’t they? You’d think they’d have a better grasp of their existence, given that’s where they keep their heads.
Ok but I warned you about the France thing.
Maybe during the cutlet campaign we could also sneak in a condom campaign over Greenpeace. Might save the Republic yet if we could actually produce oil.
Maybe if France is building a reactor in Haiti, they won’t be in Iran?
A bit of trivia about the República Dominicana:
During the Grant Administration, President Báez of the Dominican Republic very nearly sold the whole country to the US. Grant was interested for a while because, at the time, it was very sparsely populated and had potentially huge amounts of fertile farmland. The idea was to move the recently freed Southern blacks to the colonize the newly annexed “US Territory” – not because he wanted them out, but because he believed that Southern whites would never accept black US Citizens living among them. The Senate all but laughed the idea off the floor, but a century of Jim Crow sadly proved him correct about Southern attitudes…
I suspect Hispaniola is a bit to seismically active for a nuclear plant to ever become operational.
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9117382/Haiti
too not to
I think the pebbly bed ones are more seismic friendly. Mr. Reynolds would know.
Solar energy makes sense in a desert. Like the Great Sandbox in the middle of the Outback.
In a rainy, cloudy, skyscraper-filled city like… Kuala Lumpur, not so much.
The problem is, of course, in the details. While a nice big old power plant in the middle of the island would be a start, you’d need to get that power to the people that need it. So not only do you have to supply the plant, you need to donate the machines that run off the power. And you need to supply the power lines. And given the price of copper, you need a peacekeeping force to prevent people from taking the lines down and selling them.
damn, hf, you’re listening to Socialist Radio again. Shame on you.
Dan, starvation is due to poverty. What’s news? Dominican Republic doesn’t want to help their darker Hispaniola brethren (odd name for island shared w/ francophones) and has troops trying to keep them out so why’d you think they want to share that nuc. thingy? There isn’t room for it Haiti as the people displaced for the ‘security’ would have to go somewhere. As for starvation, most of the rice price increases (as example) are driven up by commodity speculators in anticipation of the decreasing dollar driving up the costs of everything. (my interpretation: They’re just looking for short term profits at the price of causing world wide misery.) Heard it on NPR the first part but interpret it from observations of typical “conservative” money-changer’s attitudes.
I presume happy keeps listening to NPR as it is only intelligent thing on the radio…..excellence in broadcasting and bipartisan. Unlike the rest of the talk shows.
So…screw the godless heathen then?
What are the causes of the poverty? Lack of resourses, incompetant government management, overpopulation, etc. Thowing money at said poverty is not the answer. You know, whole “teach a man to fish” thing.
Our energy policy is so fracked as to be utterly incoherent. While there are two clear sides to the issue the fact of the matter is we have to do “both” sides of the equation for the short term economic impact and the long term global and national security interests. Build nuclear power plants and whatever alternative energy technologies we have while aggresively exploiting the resourses available in the short term while also investing in long term solutions like fusion and others.
Unfortunatly we are so distracted by this whole War on Climate Change that we are wasting time and resourses on a faux crisis mentality that sees every dollop of carbon as another brick in humanitie’s destruction. The result is a loud cadre of minions more than happy to throw the world’s economy under the bus in the short term to achieve a political environmental victory that will, ultimately, be devastating for poor people all over the world.
No, it’s not. It can be caused by environmental factors (drought, floods, etc.), but in the modern world starvation is caused by political factors. Typically it’s the result of a socialist government doing its level best to commit genocide against its political enemies.
And, dave, happyfeet was making fun of NPR’s casting of reheating leftovers as some sort of eco-warrior good deed.
#6 No. No. Decentra. They love teh solar ’cause the sun shines out their asses,(collective)
Nuke powerplants on submarines are very compact and efficient. Park and an old boomer off the coast and pipe in some electricity.
Dave. If you’re typing you aren’t looking for work. That health insurance won’t pay itself. Go. Get busy.
10 hour days, ol’ Rustoleum. But it’s seasonal. Health insurance? whztht?
Rob, I don’t think Haiti, (or Egypt, or Somalia, or…) fits your socialist starvation model but whatever. However the lack of political freedom could be a big factor. Like not allowing people to move to wealthier states is a factor like poor Mexicans and Haitians aren’t allowed in to the States but Cubans are given welfare benefits automatically if they enter the USA. Politics? you bet.