Amazing how the emotion of fear will make us totally illogical. It’ll result in poor decision making, and actions that do not make sense to a person thinking with crystal clarity. That wall is larger than ever with today’s events.

Unfounded fear of darkness may keep one from entering a dark house. A groundless fear of flying may have one pick driving as a mode of transportation, no matter how long. Fear of having a baby because of pain, lack of money, lack of knowledge, or poor timing may drive someone to abortion and the killing of that life.

Fear of global warming causing rising waters and pestilence will cloud one’s thinking. It will obscure the true facts of past history, past CO2 concentrations, and the sun being a variable star by ~0.5%.

Fear of the announced receding oil supply has led many to believe the “peak oil” theory. This fear has many thinking oil production has reached its peak. Information as to how many wells are now being “adiabatically” refilled seems lost. Or even drilling (believed to affect the environment) in certain areas known to have oil has not been approved because of fear of hurting that environment.

One of the worst fears seems to come directly from nuclear energy—fission and fusion. Nuclear fission has been in use and providing power for the past 50 years. In 2004, fission nuclear power provided 6.5% of the world’s energy and 15.7% of the world’s electricity (Wikipedia). It is widely known nuclear fuel contains at least 10 million times more useable energy than does chemical fuel.

The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) reported there are at least 439 fission reactors in operation. One can look up that the US alone has fission providing 20% of the electricity it consumes, with 80% for France.

But fear of nuclear accident, radiation, nuclear proliferation, and nuclear waste production has almost halted any new plant production. The 1979 Three Mile Island and 1986 Chernobyl disaster played right into everyone’s fears. But the problematic containment buildings since Chernobyl have long been addressed in all newer fission facilities without any further problems.

In a nutshell, a little research has determined:

1) Only one death in half a century from direct result of radiation exposure from the generation of atomic power. In the last 50 years there have been 83,000 American deaths in coal mining accidents and premature black-lung disease. Even this is 10x the number of possible long-term deaths from Chernobyl.

2) Per the Department of Labor, over the last 50 years America has sustained at least 1000 deaths and 50,000 debilitating injuries from oil and gas drilling.

3) Zero casualties in America’s worst nuclear accident--“Three Mile Island”.

4) No link to cancer mortality. A total of 104 US nuclear power facilities have produced no link to cancer rates (16 types) for those living in their shadows (National Cancer Institute).

5) Terrorist activities at a fission site have proved to be fruitless due to new shut down techniques, and lack of a possible large number of human deaths.

Because of its sensationalism, American pop culture has seized on the idea of nuclear mutation in animals and humans. Of course, with more typical energy options, people easily overlook all the injuries and pollution caused by mining waste, runoff, acid rain, dams, gas discharges, and windmills.

For windmills alone, their impact on bird and bat populations are quite deadly. In one 2004 study on bats, just 63 turbines at two eastern US sites removed 2,200 of these furry insectivores in 6 weeks (Amrhein/Whiskey and Gunpowder).

Bottom line, even if you believe that CO2 is killing the planet despite its necessity for photosynthesis for every living plant, fission only generates a fraction of the CO2 that coal- and gas-fired electricity does. It seems the answer for all our fuel needs is sitting there staring us in the face, but fear has disabled us from thinking clearly.

FDR’s quote comes to mind: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.