Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Observation 2: Solvency
A. Sub-seabed nuclear waste disposal solves radiation
leakage
First formally proposed in 1973, the concept of burying nuclear waste in stable clay formations
under the seabed was investigated by international teams of scientists for many years. A
substantial scientific literature details the various modalities, associated risks, and geological
conditions. The large undersea plain some 600 miles north of Hawaii, stable for some 65
million years, received special attention. Researchers found that the clay muds in such
sub-seabed formations had a high capacity for binding radionuclides, so that any
leakage would be likely to remain within the clay for millions of years, by which time
radioactive emissions would decline to natural background levels.
%202008-07-29.doc[PB]
Ultimately, on the basis of radiological assessments conducted by
EPA and Sandia National Laboratories, the manager of both the
national and the coordinated international programs, the subseabed option was shown to be the safest of all options by several
orders of magnitude. Nevertheless, the U.S. program was
terminated prematurely by DOE in 1987 and the European program
couldnt survive on its own. What then had happened?
Observation 3: Advantages
Advantage 1: Ethics
discrimination is defined as "actions or practices carried out by members of dominant (racial or ethnic) groups that have differential and negative impact on members of subordinate (racial and ethnic) groups." [5] The United States is grounded in white racism. The nation was founded
on the principles of "free land" (stolen from Native Americans and Mexicans), "free labor" (African slaves brought to this land in chains), and "free men" (only white men with property had the right to vote). From the outset, racism shaped the economic, political and ecological landscape
of this new nation. Environmental racism buttressed the exploitation of land, people, and the natural environment. It operates as an intra-nation power arrangement--especially where ethnic or racial groups form a political and or numerical minority. For example, blacks in the U.S. form
both a political and numerical racial minority. On the other hand, blacks in South Africa, under apartheid, constituted a political minority and numerical majority. American and South African apartheid had devastating environmental impacts on blacks. [6]
especially true for the global resource extraction industry such as oil, timber, and minerals. [7]
Globalization makes it easier for transnational corporations and capital to flee to areas with the least
environmental regulations, best tax incentives, cheapest labor, and highest profit. The struggle of African
Americans in Norco, Louisiana and the Africans in the Niger Delta are similar in that both groups are
negatively impacted by Shell Oil refineries and unresponsive governments. This scenario is repeated for
Latinos in Wilmington (California) and indigenous people in Ecuador who must contend with pollution from
Texaco oil refineries. The companies may be different, but the community complaints and concerns are
Many nearby
residents are "trapped" in their community because of inadequate
roads, poorly planned emergency escape routes, and faulty warning
systems. They live in constant fear of plant explosions and
accidents. The Bhopal tragedy is fresh in the minds of millions of people who live next to chemical
very similar. Local residents have seen their air, water, and land contaminated.
plants. The 1984 poison-gas leak at the Bhopal, India Union Carbide plant killed thousands of people-making it the world's deadliest industrial accident. It is not a coincidence that the only place in the U.S.
where methyl isocyanate (MIC) was manufactured was at a Union Carbide plant in in predominately African
American Institute, West Virginia. [8] In 1985, a gas leak from the Institute Union Carbide plant sent 135
residents to the hospital. Institutional racism has allowed people of color communities to exist as colonies,
areas that form dependent (and unequal) relationships to the dominant white society or "Mother Country"
with regard to their social, economic, legal, and environmental administration. Writing more than three
decades ago, Carmichael and Hamilton, in their work Black Power, offered the "internal" colonial model to
explain racial inequality, political exploitation, and social isolation of African Americans. Carmichael and
purpose of enriching, in one form or another, the "colonizer"; the consequence is to maintain the economic
dependency of the "colonized." [9] Institutional racism reinforces internal colonialism. Government
Whether by design or benign neglect, communities of color (ranging from the urban ghettos and barrios to
rural "poverty pockets" to economically impoverished Native American reservations and developing
nations) face some of the worst environmental problems .
permitted to store waste in 64 casks when the current operating licenses end
in 2033 and 2034."
Gary and Albert, WEB Dubois institute, racial theorists, Irreconcilable differences.
Transition, 71, 1996, pp. 158-177
Perhaps Memmi's most precocious and valuable insights emerge from his belief that racism
impossible condition ... a condition which can have no solution in its actual structure." We can read Memmi's work as an
inventory of possible responses to colonization, racism, and anti-Semitism. He believes that racialized
subjects
are inevitably impelled by contradictory gestures of self-rejection
and self-affirmation, and that it is as impossible to secure recognition as
different but equal as it is to gain full access to "universal" humanity: "No matter which way
I turned I always found my- self an accomplice of the established order." He has profound empathy for oppressed peoples' attempts to
survive with dignity, and he allows us to see the desire to disappear into the mainstream and the wish to retreat into ghettoized
enclaves as natural reactions to the racial dilemma.
D. Dehumanization is every impact discussed in debate felt by real people every day
and must be rejected
Berube, 1997; David M., Professor of Communication Studies at University of South Carolina., NANOTECHNOLOGICAL
PROLONGEVITY: The Down Side, http://www.cas.sc.edu/engl/faculty/berube/prolong.htm]
This means-ends dispute is at the core of Montagu and Matson's treatise on the dehumanization of humanity. They warn[s]: "its
Scenario 2: Poverty
A. High fuel prices are one of the biggest burdens on
impoverished families lowering the cost of energy
should be the first priority in solving poverty.
Holt, President of the Consumer Energy Alliance, 2014
(David, Energy key to solving income inequality, January 28, Online:
http://theenergyvoice.com/energy-key-solving-income-inequality/)
When exploring solutions to income inequality policy makers pay
close attention to the costs. The cost of healthcare. The cost of food. The cost of child care.
The cost of housing. What about the cost of energy? According to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, in 2012 the average U.S. family spent over $4,600 or about 9 percent of
their budget to heat and power their homes and fuel their vehicles.
Families in the bottom fifth of income earners spent nearly 33
percent more of their budget on energy costs than average $2,500 a year or 12%
of their annual budget. Reference the chart to the left and you will find that low-income families
spend two and half times more on energy than on health services.
Unlike food and housing, consumers cannot shop around for the
lowest cost energy. Bargains can be found in the supermarket, but,
prices at the pump do not vary from one station to the next.
Conservation similarly is not an option when its a choice between
driving to work or saving a gallon of gasoline. A solution to
remedying income inequality is tackling rising energy costs . The U.S.
Energy Information Administration projects the price of electricity will rise 13.6
percent and the price of gasoline by 15.7 percent from now until
2040. Rising global demand, aging and insufficient energy
infrastructure and restrictive government policies all play a role in
increasing costs.President Obama has the ability to reverse this trend and lessen the blow to all
consumers. Take the shale gas boom for example. Increasing access to private and state lands and sound
state regulatory programs have boosted production of natural gas and led to a significant lowering of
prices. IHS CERA predicted that the shale revolution lifted household income by more than $1,200 in 2012
through lower energy costs, more job opportunities and greater federal and state tax revenues. Policy
makers should promote responsible energy development with the knowledge that it will have a positive
affect on even the most vulnerable. The president has the power to act. Permitting energy infrastructure
including the Keystone XL Pipeline, opening new offshore areas to oil and natural gas development, and
If policy
makers want to take meaningful action to help our nations low
income families, they must pursue actions that help lower not raise
the cost of energy.
finalizing the nuclear waste confidence rulemaking, could transform the energy economy.
http://thebreakthrough.org/images/pdfs/Breakthrough_Ins
titute_How_to_Make_Nuclear_Cheap.pdf
The promise of nuclear technologies capable of producing cheap,
clean, and abun- dant energy once inspired widespread hopes in modern
progress and captured the imaginations of policy makers eager to deliver on
popular aspirations. That promise has not been altogether unfulfilled.
Nuclear energy now represents 12 percent of total global electricity
production and comprises 19 percent of total electrical generation in
the United States, 29 percent in South Korea, 43 percent in Sweden, and
82 percent 10 in France.1 Existing nuclear plants are one of the
cheapest sources of electrical power production in the United
States,2 while France boasts the lowest electricity prices in Western
Europe. 3
for U.S. spent fuel. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has set the global
standard for excellence in nuclear energy regulation and has long served to
bolster public confidence in nuclear operations. Yet there is a growing concern that the regulatory
burden facing U.S. plant operators will be expanded without commensurate safety benefit, particularly in
light of the understandable and appropriate desire to respond quickly to lessons learned from the
Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. It is essential that the NRC and the U.S. nuclear industry work
constructively to enhance the safety and security of the U.S. nuclear fleet without placing undue burdens
industry; additional regulatory costs without appropriate benefits will weigh down otherwise wellperforming nuclear facilities and their staff, and would contribute to financial pressures that could lead to
even more rapid shutdowns of presently operating nuclear power plants.
measures to ensure that marginalized social groups enjoy electricity access would not qualify as discrimination.
Significantly, the human right is formulated as one of access rather than a right to electricity per se. Access
must be physical (an adequate infrastructure exists), geographically proximate (located near
end users) and economical (affordable). The term access first implies equality of
opportunity which permits everyone to develop their own capabilities
without undue restriction. It also requires governments to remedy
situations of de facto inequality by removing barriers to participation and
instituting affirmative measures in favor of disadvantaged groups. Second, the duty of suppliers to provide
electricity upon demand is contingent upon consumers first being eligible, namely, satisfying the supply conditions
including the ability to make financial payment. Third, access is consistent with the obligation of progressive
realization envisaged by the ICESCR which acknowledges the resource constraints confronting government.
Governments would be expected to incrementally expand electricity networks over time in light of available energy
but rather the goods and services it produces (in other words, their demand is derived). Returning to the right as
supply constitutes an acceptable strength to power the appliance for which it is intended whereas personal and
Advantage 2: Leakage
Scenario 1: Mutations
A. Leaks are inevitable unless a change is made
Easley 12
(Megan, Magna Cum Laude @ Georgetown University, Law
Graduate from Cornell)
http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=3235&context=clr
Although the U.S. government accepted federal responsibility for disposing of
civilian nuclear waste with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA),4
spent nuclear fuel continues to linger at its source in temporary
storage facilities built by the utility companies operating nuclear power
plants. 5 Some of these facilities are leaking,6 some are located near
elementary schools, 7 and others are already filled to ca- pacity.8
These problems in "temporary storage" are hardly surprising,
however, since under the NWPA the federal government was to
accept receipt of nuclear waste for permanent disposal in a geologic
reposi- tory in 1998. 9 However, 1998 came and went but nuclear
waste stayed put.
Scenario 2: Ecocide
A. Nuclear waste leakage devastates the environment-this is ecocide
Hynes 14 Traprock Center for Peace and Justice in western Massachusetts,
retired environmental engineer and Professor of Environmental Health (Pat
Hynes, Summer 2014, The Invisible Casualty of War: The Environmental
Destruction of U.S. Militarism, http://traprock.org/wpcontent/uploads/2014/06/Militarism-and-the-Environment.pdf)//twonily
Since the United States exploded the first nuclear bomb in New Mexico in 1945, more than 2,000 nuclear weapons have
been tested worldwide in multiple environments: aboveground, underwater, underground, and in outer space. According
to some estimates, the equivalent of more than 29,000 Hiroshima bombs have been tested in the atmosphere,
discharging more than 9,000 pounds of plutonium with a half-life of 24,000 yearsinto the environment. 9,10 Hundreds
of thousands of military personnel, civilian workers, their families, and people living downwind of test sites have been
exposed to radiation at levels sufficient to cause cancer and other diseases. Compensation programs set up by the U.S.
government place many obstacles in the way of claimants, including burden of proof, maximum limits on compensation
and grossly inadequate underfunding, particularly in the case of compensating citizens of the Marshall Islands and
Micronesia, both of which places were environmental sacrifice zones for the U.S. nuclear program.11 Most of the
uranium mined for the U.S. nuclear program was in or near Navajo tribal lands in New Mexico. More
than 1,000 regional mines and mill sites are now abandoned and unsealed sources of soil and drinking water
sites at the DOE nuclear weapons and fuel facilities had been identified for remediation. The now-closed Hanford nuclear
weapons facility, which recycled uranium and extracted plutonium for nuclear weapons, is the largest nuclear waste
storage site in the country and may be the worlds largest environmental cleanup site, with a projected budget of $100
related diseases at elevated rates. Nearby residents, including the Yakima Nation, also experienced high rates of cancers,
miscarriages and other health problems. The waste on the closed 600 acre site includes nearly five tons of plutonium and
60 of
the tanks have leaked and others may be leaking into soil and groundwater
which flows into the Columbia River, a regional source of salmon,
agricultural irrigation, and drinking water supply.14 Nuclear weapons
waste dwarfs all other hazardous waste in scale, toxicity, dispersion
across the world, and cost. Moreover, it defies technical solutions for
permanent environmental cleanup and environmental safety .15
more than 53 million gallons of radioactive plutonium waste stored in underground tanks. According to DOE about
the
anthropocentric perspectives of conservation or liberal
environmentalism cannot take us far enough. Our relations with
nonhuman nature are poisoned and not just because we have set up
feedback loops that already lead to mass starvations, skyrocketing
environmental disease rates, and devastation of natural resources.
The problem with ecocide is not just that it hurts human beings. Our
uncaring violence also violates the very ground of our being, our
natural body, our home. Such violence is done not simply to the
other -- as if the rainforest, the river, the atmosphere, the species
made extinct are totally different from ourselves. Rather, we have
crucified ourselves-in-relation-to-the-other, fracturing a mode of
being in which self and other can no more be conceived as fully in
isolation from each other than can a mother and a nursing child. We
Levinas. As he rejects an ethics proceeding on the basis of self-interest, so I believe
are that child, and nonhuman nature is that mother. If this image seems too maudlin, let us remember that
other lactating women can feed an infant, but we have only one earth mother. What moral stance will be
shaped by our personal sense that we are poisoning ourselves, our environment, and so many kindred
spirits of the air, water, and forests? To begin, we may see this tragic situation as setting the limits to
denies this sense of connection with nature. Our "natural" side represents for him a threat of simple
consumption or use of the other, a spontaneous response which must be obliterated by the power of ethics
in general (and, for him in particular, Jewish religious law(23) ). A "natural" response lacks discipline;
without the capacity to heed the call of the other, unable to sublate the self's egoism. Worship of nature
would ultimately result in an "everything-is-permitted" mentality, a close relative of Nazism itself. For
Levinas, to think of people as "natural" beings is to assimilate them to a totality, a category or species
which makes no room for the kind of individuality required by ethics.(24) He refers to the "elemental" or
the "there is" as unmanaged, unaltered, "natural" conditions or forces that are essentially alien to the
categories and conditions of moral life.(25) One can only lament that Levinas has read nature -- as to
some extent (despite his intentions) he has read selfhood -- through the lens of masculine culture .
It is
precisely our sense of belonging to nature as system, as interaction,
as interdependence, which can provide the basis for an ethics
appropriate to the trauma of ecocide. As cultural feminism sought to expand our
sense of personal identity to a sense of inter-identification with the human other, so this ecological
ethics would expand our personal and species sense of identity into
an inter-identification with the natural world. Such a realization can lead us to
an ethics appropriate to our time, a dimension of which has come to be known as "deep ecology."(26) For
is our body somehow irrelevant to ethical relations, with knowledge of it reduced always to tactics of
domination.
connection to all of life. The deep ecology sense of self-realization goes beyond the modern Western
sense of "self" as an isolated ego striving for hedonistic gratification. . . . . Self, in this sense, is
experienced as integrated with the whole of nature.(27) Having gained distance and sophistication of
perception [from the development of science and political freedoms] we can turn and recognize who we
have been all along. . . . we are our world knowing itself. We can relinquish our separateness. We can come
home again -- and participate in our world in a richer, more responsible and poignantly beautiful way.(28)
Ecological ways of knowing nature are necessarily participatory. [This] knowledge is ecological and plural,
reflecting both the diversity of natural ecosystems and the diversity in cultures that nature-based living
gives rise to. The recovery of the feminine principle is based on inclusiveness. It is a recovery in nature,
woman and man of creative forms of being and perceiving. In nature it implies seeing nature as a live
organism. In woman it implies seeing women as productive and active. Finally, in men the recovery of the
feminine principle implies a relocation of action and activity to create life-enhancing, not life-reducing and
life-threatening societies.(29) In this context, the knowing ego is not set against a world it seeks to
control, but one of which it is a part. To continue the feminist perspective, the mother knows or seeks to
know the child's needs. Does it make sense to think of her answering the call of the child in abstraction
from such knowledge? Is such knowledge necessarily domination? Or is it essential to a project of care,
respect and love, precisely because the knower has an intimate, emotional connection with the known?
(30) Our ecological vision locates us in such close relation with our natural home that knowledge of it is
knowledge of ourselves. And this is not, contrary to Levinas's fear, reducing the other to the same, but a
celebration of a larger, more inclusive, and still complex and articulated self.(31) The noble and terrible
burden of Levinas's individuated responsibility for sheer existence gives way to a different dream, a
different prayer: Being rock, being gas, being mist, being Mind, Being the mesons traveling among the
galaxies with the speed of light, You have come here, my beloved one. . . . You have manifested yourself as
trees, as grass, as butterflies, as single-celled beings, and as chrysanthemums; but the eyes with which
you looked at me this morning tell me you have never died.(32) In this prayer, we are, quite simply, all in
it together. And,