In this issue
“Summer time, an’ the livin’
is easy; fish are jumping and the cotton is high.” When
the American composer George Gershwin penned those famous words
he evoked a timeless, idyllic vision of summer that we usually
associate with our long-lost youth. Whether lazy hot days chilling
by the pool is your thing, whether playing tennis, sampling local
cuisine or enjoying a bit of culture is what you are hooked on,
one thing is sure - we are all entitled to a bit of dolce vita
now and again; we all need our annual fix of vitamin D and relaxation
to recharge our batteries. So, when summer fails to show up and
generate a healthy dose of the feel good factor, we can get understandably
depressed.
Well, with the amount of rain that fell in some
parts of northern Europe during May and early June, there are
many who could be forgiven for thinking that summer, far from
being just around the corner, is in fact a remote and alien concept
dreamt up by Neckermann or Club Med to persuade us to
part with our hard-earned cash. For some people who suffer from
seasonal affective disorder (appropriately “SAD” for
short) torrential rain in May and June is sometimes enough to
make Prozac seem a reasonable option.
The truth of the matter is that climate change
continues to set the global agenda. For many of us the threat
of drought or the prospect of devastating forest fires has temporarily
receded thanks to virtually constant rainfall and temperatures
more reminiscent of winter than spring or summer. But it’s
just a matter of time until another climate change induced episode
wreaks havoc and destruction somewhere in the world. From the
fear of drought to flood warnings….the words “out”
“fire” and “frying pan” spring to mind.
How ironic that one manifestation of climate change should be
brought to an end by another.
The evidence is irrefutable and yet there are
still people who believe that climate change is just a cyclical
phenomenon rather than a manifestation of man’s footprint
on the planet. Clearly, it’s high time that those people
who still doubt the influence of climate change woke up and smelt
the coffee. There is a lot that can and ought to be done to combat
climate change and reverse current trends. Nowhere is this more
apparent than when it comes to satisfying the world’s spiralling
energy needs. More and more countries have recognised the new
reality and come to the conclusion – some more reluctantly
than others - that only nuclear energy can offer an effective
long-term solution to the fossil fuel emissions that foster the
global warming that triggers climate change.
Of course, for nuclear scientists this might
seem like preaching to the converted. But perhaps we should do
more to make scientific fact more accessible and understandable
to those who still need to be persuaded? A wise man once said
“Science is the apotheosis of the intellect” and perhaps
that’s the problem. Unless we improve our ability to translate
complex scientific concepts and data into a simple language that
people can easily understand, much of what we communicate will
fall on deaf ears. If, in the eyes of a non-scientific majority
science remains the domain of an intellectual minority that speaks
an unintelligible foreign tongue, than we will have failed to
reach out to the widest possible audience. Rather than leave it
up to natural disasters and extreme weather episodes to hammer
home the message that climate change is real - and that nuclear
energy can help combat it - perhaps we could do more to preach
the message to the unconverted? It’s just a thought.
As, for most of us, the countdown to the summer
holidays has just begun, we can only hope that climate change
will take some time off and allow us to enjoy a real summer where
droughts, flash floods, forest fires and dangerous ozone levels
are a distant memory. Perhaps we will be able to experience again
a long hot summer like those that were common currency when we
were younger. Now there’s a thought.
Wherever you are and whatever you are doing this summer, enjoy
it.
In Issue N° 13 of ENS NEWS,
our President, Frank Deconinck gives a personal vote of thanks
to the outgoing ENS Secretary General, Dr. Peter Haug, for all
that he has done for ENS these past five years. He then welcomes
his successor onboard, Santiago San Antonio.
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Mark O’Donovan
Editor-in-Chief
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