Heedless optimism about technology is dangerous

I truly would have enjoyed seeing J. Laurence Kulp's talk mentioned in your article "Earth provides endless resources, speaker says," (March 27). It is all too rare that one gets to witness an educated speaker who has attained such an advanced level of delusion. Yes, we should all put stock in those saviors called 'grad. students' who will make sure that the industry called 'technology' will quell our fears about our precious biosphere. Why, if history repeats itself, we can all sleep soundly in our beds. After all, it was within the "scientific advancement of the last 100 years" that nuclear power became a feasible reality for energy production.

And wouldn't you know it, but at its initiation, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in their optimism, figured that the nuclear power plants must be built and that technology, in it's steady growth, would miraculously solve the problems of that industry's waste products by the time the spent fuel would start to stock pile. And what was that solution? Bury it. Bury it deep in the desert. What a perfect idea! See, technology eventually does pave the way for us to take care of our bastard children.

But Kulp doesn't talk about nuclear power as our saving grace. Instead, he maintains that renewable energy will be "available for millions of years." And yes, Tucson would be the "first spot [in which] direct solar energy will flourish." But you know what? The University of Arizona has recently phased out its Nuclear and Energy Engineering Department. Within the next year or so, you won't be able to enroll in a course on photovoltaics or on wind energy. So, my only question is, "where can a gal who isn't a 'doomsayer' or a 'pessimist,' but a good, old fashioned realist, get a pair of them rose-colored glasses anyway?" Maybe there's a grad. student out there designing a pair now.

By Jordana Beebe (letter)
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 7, 1997