Sir, – As we anxiously await the outcome of Cop26 in Glasgow for a decisive action plan to curtail the rise in global temperatures, Michael Viney recaps on 60 years ago when he joined a protest march in London campaigning for nuclear disarmament.
His intention then was saving western civilisation, as opposed to today's efforts to save the planet (Another Life, October 30th).
At that time, the painful memory of the tragedy of Nagasaki and Hiroshima was all too recent and in the years since then, nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima have meant a reluctance by many countries to embrace nuclear power.
As fossil fuels are being phased out, the less than fully effective wind and solar energy are the only established global alternatives until other renewable energy sources become proven.
It appears essential that nuclear energy, whose generation and use is cheap and independent of weather, will have to be considered as a high-priority interim option to supply the ever-increasing demand for electricity and maintain the living standards that people have become accustomed to.
In dealing with the human future, Viney says that “resignation is not the business of the young”. They may ultimately have to decide between global warming with its catastrophic consequences and the existing risks of nuclear power.
– Yours, etc,
KEVIN McLOUGHLIN,
Ballina,
Co Mayo.