Stop The Runaway Trains And Trucks

Photo by Stop Nuclear Power Network

Runaways are those that travel and proceed without our consent. The trains that contained the nuclear waste reached their destination after several attempts by green activists to disrupt the shipment from France to Dannenberg, Germany.

Now, the mode of shipment of those unwanted nuclear waste shifted from train to truck. From the railway depot in Dannenberg, the containers would be carried by trucks to Gorleben, the final destination and permanent storage site of nuclear waste in Germany.

After Chernobyl nuclear disaster, there has been insecurity surrounding nuclear use for energy production. What makes the anti-nuclear protest more compelling is the availability of renewable sources of energy. As most European countries, Germany has both the money and technology to shift from reliance on nuclear energy to renewable sources of energy. Instead, the German government surprised green activists and drew the ire of them by extending the use of power plants to ten more years of operations.

Somewhere we have to stand up if we need to see the change we want to see. And this is what green activists in Germany and elsewhere are doing to press and demand their governments to adopt projects that utilize natural resources such as solar, wind, tides, rain, and other renewable sources of energy.

The developing world looks up to Europe as the model for development and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Thus, let us stop the runaway trains and trucks as symbols of old ways that do not tackle climate change head-on.