The God Species_ How the Planet Can Survive the Age of Humans - Mark Lynas [90]
Even with continuing concerns about trace chemicals polluting our watercourses or leaching out of plastic baby bottles, it is indisputable that the situation in Western countries is significantly better than just a few decades ago. In England, salmon and even otters have returned to the Thames, which was once little more than a running sewer. In all developed countries, aquatic biodiversity has improved in the most polluted rivers of yesteryear, simply because sewage sludge is now properly treated, and releases of toxics by industrial enterprises are strongly regulated by national and regional environmental agencies. In rapidly industrializing countries, by contrast, horror stories continue to filter out from places like China about vast pollution incidents and extraordinarily damaging levels of contamination. All of these arise from a failure of regulation and can only be dealt with by national authorities having the capacity, the will, and the funding to properly supervise industries and to mandate the construction of proper sewage treatment and other pollution controls. Rising levels of prosperity in the developing world will help to address this problem, for they bring with them greater levels of environmental commitment by citizens and a greater ability of governments and companies to pay for technical solutions to curb toxics emissions.
As always there are crossovers and conflicts with other planetary boundaries. The toxic heavy metal cadmium has found a new role as a major constituent of otherwise environmentally friendly solar panels, some of which use cadmium telluride to help generate electricity from the sun’s rays. In April 2010, the “green” solar industry was fighting to remain exempted from EU law governing the use and disposal of toxic substances in electronic and manufactured products.34 The issue has split the industry, with other solar companies backing a campaign group called the Non-Toxic Solar Alliance.35 Clearly no business lobby should be able to circumvent toxics regulation, even if it does help to reduce carbon emissions. For as long as cadmium remains an essential constituent of some solar photovoltaic cells, steps must be taken to ensure that any leakage into the environment (for example, during a fire in a house with solar panels on the roof) is minimal and that panels are properly recycled at the end of their lifetimes.
One area where the climate and toxics planetary boundaries clearly reinforce each other concerns the need to eliminate the use of coal as a way of generating electricity in power stations. Coal-burning stations are a major source of mercury, a potent neurotoxin that accumulates in the food chain, and other pollutants released by coal plants are equally if not more damaging. The obvious substitute for coal as a centralized form of baseload generation is nuclear, as I have made clear already, but here we come up against a central plank of conventional Green ideology. I repeat: The antinuclear position of many Greens does not stand up to rational, never mind scientific, examination, and the refusal by NGOs and political parties to reconsider their stance on nuclear harms both their credibility and the wider interests of the planet. I realize this is a strong and contentious statement, particularly in the light of the March 2011 Fukushima post-tsunami nuclear disaster in Japan, so I will devote the rest of this chapter to an in-depth investigation of the nuclear issue. If you are already persuaded, you have my consent to skip it. Otherwise, please read on.
NUCLEAR NIGHTMARES
“Cancers, birth defects, genetic damage, lowered immunity to diseases: These are only some of the potential