E-mails Exchanged Between Ron and Greenwood

2013

Greenwood's old friend, Ron living in Manhattan Beach and Greenwood living in Seven Mile Beach has been exchanging their views on various aspects of the world through email over more than 14 years. With the permission of Ron, a record of mails exchanged in 2013 were compiled in chronological order.

Dear Ron,

You have missed true meaning of my mail. Mr. Abe had won the campaign because former regime failed to obtain peoples trust, but what he is doing right now is against a wish of people about Nuke.

Abe says “Fight –baby- Fight” against China. “Neglect –baby- Neglect” people’s concern about Nuke.

Regards,
Greenwood

Dear Greenwood and Koji,

From a GW point of view, the views of Mr. Abe and the people of Japan are outstanding; but I wish he were not building more Nukes. As you showed, the potential damage from accidents is catastrophic. All countries with Nuclear plants seem to be filling up their spent fuel pools, and have no politically acceptable long term solutions. All my best wishes to Mr. Abe, but he will have to pretend more and more.

From the GW point of view it is the total emission of Greenhouse Gases that matters. In that regard Switzerland, Japan and even the USA are not the problem. The emissions from India and China alone will guarantee GW accelerates even more, even if all other countries stop emitting altogether. My despair comes from the belief that they have no politically possible alternative [with more that 2 Billion inhabitants]. Here the "Drill-baby-Drill" political philosophy has become very powerful. Even Obama cannot defy it; his political slogan was "all of the above" - a tactful way of approving more Oil and Coal. Few here even discuss Global Warming these days. Like the Ostrich, faced with a threat, we all put our heads in the sand.

Ron

Dear Ron,

A good news for you. Now we have a new government headed by Mr. Abe who likes to continue operation of existing nuclear plant and build more in Japan and in Saudi Arabia. If he succeed, Japan would remain low emission country as before. This is the decision of Japanese citizens to give Abe the power to do so. When TEPCO planned to build an new coal burning power plant, our environmental department did not give permission for it. But ironically spent fuel pool are almost 70% full now. Power company find difficulty of obtaining consent from local government for expanding pool capacity as this means the power plant site would become permanent disposal place of nuke waste. Mr. Abe consider selecting final disposal site is not his business because his political life would be short. He can pretend that China is his most important concerns.

Do you understand that our country is governed by a person who looks very kind for people in the world and for people who believe that manmade global warming is scientifically true.

Do you feel happy?

Greenwood

Dear Greenwood and Koji.

Today there are some indications of stiffening resistance to Nuclear Power here. [The position of Nuclear Power as an alternate has been weakened by the glut of Natural Gas here, caused by the successful Fracturing of gas [and oil] deposits. Natural gas is selling very cheaply here and many Gas-fired power plants are being built].

Duke Energy in Florida had decided to close a Nuke Plant rather than invest $ 3 billion for repairs. Our local Nuke, San Onofre, is still closed down due to the notorious failures in faulty boiler tubes. One CA Senator and other US Congressmen are calling for it to be left unrepaired and abandoned. Today the LA Times ran a strong editorial against restarting it.

Here are links to the two stories. From the LA Times website there are many other links to similar stories.

http://www.energybiz.com/article/13/02/closure-duke-energy-s-nuke-plant-opens-more-natural-gas-opportunities&utm_medium=eNL&utm_campaign=EB_DAILY&utm_term=Original-Member

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-san-onofre-nuclear-plant-pull-the-plug-20121004,0,1007735.story

I realize that the US is alone in it's lucky abundance of alternate fuels, and of course, NG makes more Greenhouse gases than Nuclear power. To me these are easily set aside due to the risk costs of any nuclear power plant as Mr. Greenwood has shown.

On Global Warming I am now completely resigned to the World doing nothing about it. On the contrary, I foresee ever more burning of Coal and other CO2 sources. A recent projection by the EIA shows that in less than 5 years, China's coal consumption will exceed ALL other coal burning nations combined. India also is ramping up it's consumption very rapidly.

This is politically inescapable. Even Obama, secure in his last elected position, can and will do nothing. The governors of "Chindia" are even less likely to dare attempt any reduction in coal burning.

Sadly,

Ron

February 11, 2013