Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Current affairs post
My article is taken from http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_GEN_THAILAND_NUCLEAR_ENERGY_ASOL-?SITE=ASIAONE&SECTION=SOUTHEAST&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-02-06-19-32-12
This article concerns both the environment and economic growth. Its tells us, Thais are given a go ahead to build a 15-year draft energy nuclear power plant plan that would boost the country’s electricity demand growth and the economic growth by vast amounts. But upon hearing this many Thai environmentalists held up a public hearing on plans for nuclear energy. The angry environmentalists protested outside the Siam City Hotel and even forced the cancellation of a public hearing. They insisted that the 15-year draft energy plan be stopped because of the damages it would do to the surrounding environment and population.The ministry is considering nuclear power as one of its options in the 2007-2021 plans to meet growing energy demands in Thailand. As many options were proposed, the cost was not mentioned. The first was relying on nuclear power plants providing huge amounts of electricity, together with the already present electricity produced by coals and natural gas.The next scenario is building more coal-fired power plants as well as more natural gas plants to bring up the electricity supplied. This will cause many pollution problems and thus is not really reliable.I think this idea or improvements have both its pros as well as it cons. Firstly, with the building of the power plants, it will boost the energy and electricity produced, thus the lack of electricity at any time will not occur. This will also boost the economy in many ways. For example, with the abundance of electricity, more shopping centers will be built, thus adding onto the already soaring economic growth.But on the other hand, the new advancement can cause much damage to the surrounding air and environment. As we already know Thailand is not exactly a very clean country, this would therefore add to the pollution. These damages cannot be helped if the power plant plan continues. It would be a catastrophe to everyone and not a very suitable environment and surrounding to go there for a holiday or even to live there. The pollution will not only affect the country itself, but it would also disrupt the air of neighboring countries such as Singapore our homeland.These pros and cons have to be seriously thought through and be considered from both the investors as well as the environmentalists. I strongly suggest that everyone comes together and decide on something that both parties can agree on. Thus there will not be any disagreement or fights.