We, members and representatives of faith communities, ask our Minster of Energy, Dipuo Peters, to meet with us and our advisers as a matter of urgency - rather than only with the energy corporations who command most of her attention - to discuss our energy future in South Africa.
In a recent Mail & Guardian article, Minister Peters claimed that South Africa still needs our considerable coal resources and must invest in nuclear. These claims have no sound moral basis - they are founded in the narrowest conceptions of what is economically viable and betray the limited vision of the Minister's advisers. For coal is immensely destructive of human health, climate and future wealth while the pursuit of nuclear energy with its immense costs, risks and health and security hazards is the ultimate expression of the sin of pride.
Love and compassion must guide our decision making for current and future generations. If they were part of the calculations of our Minister's department, they would not dream of taking these risks. The basis for our decisions should always be what is good for people and planet and not what is profitable, and profitable only in the short term, at great cost to our future.
We know that to maintain the health of the planet - and so our own health - we must follow the laws of nature - and, the faith communities would add, of God. When we deviate from the laws of the universe, nature and of God, we cause disruption and destruction to the natural world - and to us, for we are bound to our Mother Earth's wellbeing. When we behave as if resources are unlimited, or as if accidents do not happen, or as if natural disasters only occur elsewhere, or as if human beings are never tragically fallible, we invite disaster.
We must ask: how can the department of energy tell our children that they must find a solution for storing our high-level nuclear waste when you have not yet even funded a solution for the waste from Koeberg and carefully exclude future waste-storage costs from the projected costs of planned new plants?
How can our government make us slaves to the ever-rising costs of scarce and limited resources? In the US, the five states with the highest proportion of renewable energy have the most stable energy prices. This tells us that our prosperity demands more renewable energy ambition.
It is also extraordinary that this decision has been taken in such haste despite the visible ongoing tragedy of Fukushima, where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and where a far more technologically advanced country than SA is barely managing to cope with a nuclear disaster. Looking at such loss, at the destruction of communities, is heartbreaking. Where is the heart in our government, we must ask, that it is prepared to take such immense risks?
Already, Eskom in its arrogance is serving expropriation orders to people in order to build these monsters - threatening livelihoods in the Western Cape.
While the morality of these decisions is our primary concern, we do not ignore practicalities. In fact, it often seems government ignores the deeper practicalities. Leading economists tell us that the more we delay action on climate change, the faster we destroy future prosperity - yet we persist with the climate-destroying Medupi and Kusile coal stations, fuelling our own destruction.
The Fukushima disaster shut down 11 of Japan's nuclear reactors, at least six of which are now condemned - but the Japanese Wind Power Association declared that there was no damage at all to its members' facilities, from either the earthquake or the tsunami. Within three weeks of the disaster, Fukushima operator TEPCO, one of the five largest electricity utilities in the world, lost more than three-quarters of its share value, while the Japan Wind Development Company nearly doubled its stock price.
Again and again, it is argued that South Africa's economy will depend on nuclear reactors - yet around the world, sensible business people are putting their money into renewable, not nuclear, energy.
Tragic numbers of our youth despair of their chances of ever getting jobs; renewable energy creates more, and more decentralised, jobs than nuclear energy - but still, we are given nuclear.
The big companies who will be the primary beneficiaries of these facilities promise economic development. We know this is the urgent concern of government, but it will be of the same kind that has long bedevilled South Africa - generating as much inequality, poverty, economic risk and pollution as it does electricity and commodity exports.
Of course we want economic development, in those sectors that need it, for the dignity and wellbeing of our people. We insist on it. We recognise that South Africa needs some expansion of energy supply, and replacement of older sources.
But there is no need for nuclear power - wind and solar power technologies are rapidly advancing; recently, a solar power plant in Spain was able to supply the grid for 24 hours. Clearly, these are the technologies of the future - not only for their ability to supply reliable power but also because they are renewable, while both uranium and coal are finite non-renewable resources and will eventually run out. Why postpone this reckoning - why foist an even bigger problem on our children, and their children?
There are also vital questions that must be asked about the feasibility of the proposed nuclear construction schedule. An international World Watch Institute report of 2011 revealed that there are serious constraints on the manufacture of key reactor components that are likely to greatly slow down commissioning dates - compounding the universal tendency of nuclear projects to cost far more than the initially projected costs.
Renewable energy is in many instances already cheaper than nuclear. Even where it is more expensive, those planning these plants have no right to incur risks to human health that will persist for thousands of years for the sake of short and medium-term savings. To do so tramples on the constitutional rights of future generations to enjoy an environment as safe and as abundant as that which we have inherited. In the words of Jane Goodall, we are stealing the future from our children.
Nuclear costs only climb - yet the price of wind turbines is declining, and solar photovoltaic prices are tumbling even faster. In 2010, all renewables excluding large hydro received $151 billion of global private investment (nuclear got none) and surpassed nuclear power's total global installed capacity.
We are disturbed that the myth that renewable energy cannot provide base load electricity continues to be perpetuated. In our meetings with university researchers, a totally different picture is painted, with almost unlimited new opportunities for renewable energy to meet the energy requirements of our society.
Much hard work by civil society last year helped to pushed more renewable energy into the IRP2010 electricity planning process. In spite of this the IRP was still not a true reflection of the submissions made. The renewable energy submissions showed far greater opportunity for renewable energy generation than has been accepted by the IRP. It is absurd that a country like South Africa should have a long term plan of only 9% of renewable energy when we have much greater solar radiation than countries with higher renewable energy production plans. Our ambitions are pathetic compared to India and China.
As well-governed countries like Germany turn away from nuclear, why do we not see similar ambition in our own politicians to lead us into the energy future? Instead, you seem to be insisting on perpetuating old energy solutions that are deferring immense problems to future generations.
So we ask you, Minister Peters, meet with us. We have been seeking dialogue for a number of years. We hope that our country's experience at COP 17 has made it clearer that government and civil society - including the faith communities - need to work together.
Again we declare, it is our people's health and wellbeing and security that must be paramount, assured by a healthy planet - not the profits of foreign multinationals or the nuclear prestige of our politicians.
Bishop Geoff Davies is the executive director of the Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institute (SAFCEI).
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This article is complete technical nonsense. As it says wind capacity now exceeds nuclear, but erratic intermittent wind output is about one sixth nuclear. Solar and wind have not replaced a single fossil fuel power plant anywhere on the globe. In the U.S. 104 nuclear reactors supply 20% of electric demand at a very low cost and no harmful emissions. Wind and solar combined provide less than 3% of demand at a very high cost. Rolf Westgard, professional member, Geological Society of America
THIS ALSO IS NON FACT BASED LIES AS AMERICANS WILL TESTIFY TO THE NUMEROUS DISASTERS THAT HAS BEEN THEIR NUCLEAR REACTORS. SINCE THEIR INCEPTION ON THE PLANET ALL THEY HAVE DONE IS CR4EATE NUCLEAR DISASTERS EVRYWHERE. AS WAS MENTIONED THERE ARE NO SAFE HAVENS FOR NUCLEAR WASTE. LET US BE CLEAR SOLAR AND AND WIND ENERGY WAS USED IN VERY ANCIENT TIMES AND AS WE CAN SEE TODAY THERE ARE NO REMNANTS OF NUCLEAR DISASTERS OTHER THAN HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI , CHERNOBYL. AND THE FEW IN THE US NOT BROADLY SPOKEN OF IN WESTERN MEDIAS. AFRICA HAS THE RICHEST AMMOUNTS OF NATURAL RESOURCES ON THE PLANET WE ALSO HAVE THE MOST SUNSHINE. SOLAR PANELS OF IMMENSE TRAJECTORY CAN SUPPLY THROUGH THE KALAHARI THE SAHARAN DESERT MOST OF AFRICAS NEEDS AND BEYOND. THOSE WHO ARE VYING FOR THIS NUCLEAR DISASTER TO TAKE PLACE ARE VERY SHORT SIGHTED AND SELFISH. THEY ARE VAIN MATERIAL PEOPLE WHO HASNT CONSIDERED THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE FUTURE. WHAT ABOUT OUR CHILDREN AND THEIR LIVES. WE AS BLACK AFRICANS COME FROM A VERY L;ONG TRADITION OF L;OVE AND ECOLOGY MINDED ANCESTORS THEY WERE VERY METICULOUS ON HOW THEY INETRACTED WITH THE PLANET. SINCE THE ARRIVAL OF WHITES AND THEIR DSTRUCTIVE AGENDAS THEY HAVE REWIRED THE AFRICAN PSYCHE TO BE AS CALLOUS PARASITICAL AND DESTRUCTIVE AS THEMSELVES. WHAT EVER THEY HAVE CAME TO BWELIVE IS SO MODERN AND SUCCESSFUL HAS TOLD A COMPLETELY DIFFERNT STORY ITS BEENALL FANTASIES THERE IS NO LONGEVITY IN THEIR MODERN TECHNOLOGY ALL THEY HAVE PRODUCED HAS COST LIVES WHETER ITS MORALY MENTALY OR PHYSICALY IN THE EXTRAXTION OF THE NEEDED RESOURCE OR THE CRUEL AND UNUSUASL PUNISHMENT USED TO PERPETRATE ITS REMOVAL EVERY WAY YOU LOOK AT IT ITS BEEN A FAILURE. THEY WANT TO IMPLRE YOU TO RELY ON THEIR WHITE SUPERORITY THEY WANT TO BE THESE GREAT DEVELOPERS. WHAT THEY HAVE TO OFFER IS DEATH. WHERE ARE WE GOING TO STORE THE WASTE AGAIN? AND WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE WATSE IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN AS WE SPEAK THEIRS IS ILLOGICAL AND NOTHING BUT VAIN MEN SPEAKING FROM THEIR MISGUIDED IDEAS OF THEIR SUPERIOR IINTELLECT. WHAT THEY HAVE MANGED TO CONVINCE THEMSELVES IS THAT THEY MORE THAN NAY OTHER RACE ON THE PLANT CAN BE THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE THE MOST DYSFUNCTIONAL THE MOST MATERIALISTIC THE MOST DILLUSIONED THE MOST IGNOBLE THE MOST DISHONEST. THIER CONTIUED LIES ARE WEARING THIN AN ITS ABOUT TIME THAT THE BLACK MAN STOPS BEING EMERSED INTHIS FANCIFUL WORLD OF IDEOLOGICAL MORONS. THEIR CALLOUSNESS AHS UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA AS A STRONG CONETNDER IN WORLD AFFAIRS THEY CONTINUE TO SURPRISE YOU WITH THEIR GREAT PROWES FOR INTELLECT WHICH IS SOLELY DESTRUCTIVE AND DOESNOT WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD. THESE SAME PEOPLE HAS CONTINUED TO UNDERMINE YOUR ECONOMIES WHILE YOU ASK THEM FOR REPARATIONS FOR THE DESTRUCTIVE NATURE OF THEIR ECOLOGICAL IMBALANCES THAT HAS UNDERMINED THE CONTINENST SAFE WEATHER PATTERNS THAT HAS BEEN DESTROYED BY THEIR GRRED THEY IGNORE YOU WEHILE THEY EMBRACE FRAUD THEFT ANDTHE PRINTING OF MONEY THAT TRULY DOES NOT EXIST. THEY HAVE YTRANSPLANTED THE WORLD INTO THEIR PRIVATE MONOPOLY. THEY CONTINUE TO USE THEIR SMALL BRAISN ON GULLIBLE AND NAIVE PEOPLE WHOM TRUST THOSE WHO ARE UNJUST DECEPTIVE AND LIARS. SHOULD THE BALCK MAN DESIRE TO LIVE LIKE WHITES AND REPLICATE THEIR BEHAVIOURS WHICH ARE STRANGE AND NOT KNOWN TO BLACK LIFE N MATTER HOW LONG THEY THINK THEY HAVE BEEN ASSIMILATING THE BALCK MIND INTO THEIRDISHONEST WAY OF LIFE IT JUST DOES NOT RING TRUE. THEY HAVE SOME BLACK PEOPLE WHO HAVE EMERSED THEMSELVES DELVED DEEP INTO REINVENTING THEMSELVES IN BECOMING WHITE. THEY PATTERN THE MANNERISM THEY ARE SELF HATING THEY EVN THINK THEY ARE MORE INTELLIGENT THAN THEIR ELDERS WHOM HAVE LIVED LONGER AND HAVE LEWARNED BY EXPERIENCE WHAT IS RIGHT FROM WRONG. THE BLACK MAN HAS INNER MECHANISM THAT ALLOWS THEM TO BE RESSILIENT STRONG AND DETERMIN WHAT IS TRUTH FROM FALSE HOOD. WE HAVE MANY BALCK PEOPLE WHO DO KNOW THE TRUTH AND ARE WILLING TO SELL THEIR BROTHERS AND SISTERS DOWN THE TUBE FOR MATERIAL WEALTH. THESE EDUCATED FOOLS WILL NOT BE REWARDED AND THOSE WHO WANT TO THINK ALONG THE LINES OF THAT THERE IS NO GOD THAT WHAT WE DO IN LIFE WONT COME TO BITE US IN THE FUTURE SHOULD CONTINUE TO THINK SO. WHAT WE MUST CONSIDER THAT OUR ALMIGHTY CREATOR2 IS MOST HONOURABLE AND FROM THE BEGINNING HE TAUGHT THE EARLIEST MAN THE KNOWLEDGE AND SCIENCE OF THE PLAET. WE MUST REMEBER THAT MAN WAS BORN MAN AND NOT BABAY OR ANIMAL. WE WERE NOT TAUGHT TO LIVE OFF OF INSTINCT LIKE THE DOG THE BEAR OR THE CAT. WERE BLESSED WITH GREAT TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE MATHEMATCIS ASTRONOMY AND THESE KNOWLEDGES WERE TRANSFERED FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION WE DID NOT JUST LIVE IN THE WILD AS COMMONLY TAUGHT . WHEN THERE WAS COLD WE WERE ABLE TO DEAL WITH IT COMPREHENSIVELY WE WERE PEOPLE OF GREAT SCIENCES WE DID NOT NNED SLAVES AS EVERYONE AS MATHEMATCIALLY SOUND AND THERE WERE NO INEFRIORS WE WERE A PEOPLE OF EQUALS. WE WERE A CLASLESS SOCIETY . AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE IS THE MOST ADVANCED ON TEH PLANET YET TODAY ALL LOST AND THE AFRICAN HAS BEEN BROUGHT UP TO RELY ON THE GENEROSITY OF THE WHITE RACE TO EAT . IAM BROUGHT ABACK BY SUCH A NOTION. WHEN WE SEE THE CHILDREN IN ZIMABWE WHICH HAD SUCH AGREAT CIVILIZATION TODAYSINGING ON SOME WHITE GUYS LAP FOR CHICKEN AND FOOD SINGING OF WISHING FOR A WHITE CHRISTMAS. THIS WOULD NEVR HAPPEN IN AFRICA ANY WAY IF THEY CONTINUE TO DESTROY THE OZONE LAYER FROM ITS NATURAL AND EVEN DISTRIBUTION OF THE SUNS RAYS. WE NEED FIRST AND FOREMOST TO STAMP OUT ALL THESE AFKE TRADITIONS THAT IS EUROPEAN AND NON AFRICAN . THEN YOU MUST START TO FEEL SOME PRIDE FOR WHOM YOU ARE AND WAHT YOU REPRESENT. DEATH BEFORE DISHONOUR. WE AS AFRICANS BROUGHT DOWN THE SLAVE TRADE WE FOUGHT WE DESTROYED THEIR FOUNDATIONS AND LEAGCIES OF SLAVERY AND TODAY WE ARE EMBRACING THEIR SLAVERYMENTALITY WITH THIS GREAT ACCPETANCE OF THEIR FANTASY WORLD. YES WE MUST ALLOW OURSELVES THE NOTYION TO RECOGNISE THAT THEIR IS URONE CREATOR WHOM IS LORD AND MATSER OF ALL LIFE NOT JUST OUR LIVES BUT ALL LIVES. IF WE EMBRACE THESE TRADITINS WE MUST ALSO REMEBER THAT SATAN IS ALIVE AND KICKING AND HE HAS ATRICK FOR ALL OF US. IT IS ALOS WRITTEN THAT SATN WILL MANGE TO FOOL PEOPLE INTO BELIEVING THAT THEY WORSHIP THE CREATOR BUT THEY WORSHIP THE INIQUITY OF SATAN ANDHIS IGNOBLE EMPIRE. THAT THESE WOULD LEAD THEM TO A PATH OF DESTRUCTION. THERE IS LIGHT AND THERE IS DARKNESS THIS IS TRUE. WHAT SOMETIMES SEEMS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE IS USUALLY A LIE . THE TRUTH SOMETIMES IS HARD TO COME BY SATN MAKES SURE HE MIXES EVERY THING UP SO ITS SCRAMBLED SO YOU WOULD HAVE TO SEARCH REALLY HARD TO SEE HOW CLEVER HE IS AND HOW DECEPTIVE THEY ARE.. AGAIN I MUST RELY ON YOUR BUILT IN MECHNAISMS FOR SAFETY FOR YOU TO HEAR THE TRUTH WHEN IT IS PRESENTED TO YOU. THESE ARE THOSE WHO ARE ENSLAVERS THEY ARE DECEPTIONIST THEY ARE KIDNAPPERS THEY ARE THEIVES MURDERERS, TORTURERES. THEY ARE PSYCOPATHICS UN TRUSTWORTHY MOST OF ALL THEY ARE HATERS THEY HAVE NO LOVE FOR YOU ; THEYARE PAEDOPHILES THEY ARE RAPIST THEY ARE GENOCIDIST THEY ARE THE MOST ABOMINABLE. I WILL SAY TO MY PERSIAN FREINDS WHOM HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DEFINE THE SCIENCE AND OUR INDIAN AND PAKISTANI FREINDS YOU MUST BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS SCIENCE IT BENIFITS NOTHING AND NO ONE. MOST OF ALL WE DO NOT NEED IN IN AFRICA . THE ZIONIST WHOM OCCUPY THE UPPER NORTH OF AFRICA HAS CONSIDERABLE NUCLEAR ARSENALS WHICH IS VERY COUNTER PRODUCTIVE. TIME WILL TELL THAT THIS WILL BE VERY C OSTLY FOR THE BEARERS OF THESE ARSENALS IT WAS NOT MEANT FOR THE UTILISATIONS OF WEPONS IT IS COMPLETELY MISREPRESENTED AS WITH ALL THINGS THAT THEY HAVE AMANGED TO ACCESS AND BROKEN ITS CODES THEY HAVE TRANSGRESSED IN THEIR VAIN ATTENPTS TO ACHIEVE SUPERIORITY AND LONG LIFE. THEY ARE COMPLETELY DELUISONED AND MISGUIDED THE SAME WAY IN WHICH THEY MISLEAD AND MISINFORM IS HOW THEY HAVE COEM TO DVELOP SOME THING THAT IS NOT SAFE AND WILL LEAD ULTIMATELY TO THEIR DEMISE. AFRICA IS IN THE SUPREME POSTION TO BECOME WORLD LEADERS AND TAKE THE WORLD AWAY FROM THE BRINK OF DISASTER. THE TRUTH IS BEFORE THEM THEY MUST RESEARCH HISTORY IF WHAT THEY HEAR ME SAY DOES NOT COMPLIMENT WHAT THE WHITES HAVE TAUGHT THEM. WHAT I HAVE COME TO RECOGNISE IS THAT AFRICANS REFUSE TO LISTEN TO BALCK PEOPLE WHEN THEY PEAK OF THEM AS BEING THE PROVIDERS OF THE WORLDS CIVILIZATIONS. THS TAKES WAY FROM THE FAIRY TALES AND FANTSY STORIES OF THE WHITES AS ANGELS AS ADAM AND EVE AS JESUS WITH BLOND HAIT BLUE EYES ALL THESE STORIES AND FABLES WHICH THEY USE TO SUBJUGATE THE BLACK MIND AND CONFINE THEM TO MENTAL SLAVERY. WHEN ROBERT MUGABE SAYS HE ISA BLACKLIBERATOR THEN PRAYS TO A WHITE GOD THEN THEY LAUGH FOR IN THEIR MINDS THEY KNOW THAT WHAT THEY FOUND IN AFRICA WAS THE BLACK MADONA AS IT WAS KNOWN THEN; THEY TRANSFERED IT IN ROMAN TIMES TO THIS WHITE FIGMENT WITH THEIR PAGAN PHILOSOPHY. WHOM DO YOU WISH TO BELIEV THE ONES WHO CONIUE TO USE YOU AND MISEDUCATE YOUR CHILDREN. THEY WILL NEVBR TEACH THEM HOW TO REACH THEIR ZENITH SO THIS YOU MUST KNOW. THEY WILL HOWEVER SELL YOU THEIR TECHNOLOGY AND THEIR KNOWLEDGE IN THEIR SCHOOLS. BEING TAUGHT BY CATHLICS WHOM ARE THE WORLDS GREATEST PAEDOPHILES IS A GREVIOUS ERROR. AFRICA MUST REACH OUT TO THE DIASPORA THEY ARE MANY WITH TO MUCH EDUCATION THEN THEY END UP IN PRISON WHICH IS A WASTE AND A TRAVESTY
Coal and other fossil fuels, has, and will, kill far than nuclear energy ever will. Even with Fukushima...and old, un-updated plant *no longer being built anywhere in the world*...the safety of nuclear energy far exceeds any competing baseload source of generation.
In the US coal burning kills between 20,000 and 30,000 people a year according to our National Institute of Health. Nuclear? ZERO. Yet the pure FEAR of radiation, totally not understood by the population, seems to trump the reality.
BTW...I might add that coal is responsible to the deaths of 400,000 people a year in China, the worlds largest coal user. This is why China plans to displace 90% of it's coal with nuclear by the end of the century.
As nuclear can displace exactly 1 unit of energy from coal with a unit of non-carbon energy from fission, it's the clear choice for S. Africa's future with all the nuclear expertise it has developed from it's one nuclear power plant. Wind and solar will never come even close to replacing the "quality of nuclear 24/7 generation" at all. Ever.
tialseodv
Where is my comment?