Originally Posted @ Voices in the Wilderness
If nuclear technology is clean and desired in the United States, Canada and other industrialized nations there should be an understanding that Western cultures are not the only nations that have a responsibility to the environment and to their local populations, national security and economic growth. The entire debate over Iran’s nuclear energy program has been framed by the leaders of the world as solely a nuclear weapons debate and very little has been made of the constant claims and seeming validations of independent bodies that Iran’s nuclear program is for energy use. Without the filter of the mainstream media it isn’t hard to argue that Iran is being a responsible citizen of the world by trying to use a cleaner source of energy. I will write, for the most part, with the assumption for now that Iran is indeed trying to develop nuclear plants to supply their energy needs
The United States has built itself into a world superpower and has built its economy primarily on crude and coal. SUVs, Heating appliances, refrigerators and air conditioners; essentially all of the things we use on a day to day basis that drastically facilitates the lives of the citizens of an industrial nation needs some sort of energy source. Western civilization has been greatly blessed because of our access and efficiency with oil and coal but in the 21st century we are really starting to see the effects that our lifestyle has on the environment in which we live and the limitations of the economy that we have built. As long as the West was the only consumer of oil it would continue to grow its economy and increase its sway in the world and with world affairs. What now seems like problems that should have been seen years, even decades ago are now however catching us by surprise. The rest of the world also feels the need to have the finer things in life; they also feel that their citizenry should have air conditioning when it’s deadly hot outside or heating when it is freezing. Although these developments came very quickly mainly due to the rapid growth of India and China it is a development that the Western world should have been more prepared for. In any event, the lessons of the failures of the U.S economy is one that has been learned by some countries, Iran being one of them.
All of the benefits that we in this part of the world find with alternative energy sources apply for Iran. Nuclear technology is cleaner and having the knowledge within your borders is necessary to avoid future complications such as bribery or sanctions (as Iran knows all too well). There are no shortage of people who will point out that Iran has huge oil reserves and is in no need of nuclear energy to supply it’s demands. That may seem true on the face of it but that will eventually lead Iran to a sickening dependence on a commodity that does not appear to be unlimited, that fluctuates in price depending on the economies of other sovereign nations that is unhealthy for the environment and that it uses as a major source of income. There is no rule, and the United States politicians don’t seem to acknowledge this, that forces a nation state to run through all of its oil reserves prior to developing an alternative source. Secondly, Iran has nowhere near the amount of refineries that is needed to support a growing, more industrialized economy; this fact is evident by the amount of natural gas that it is importing. Many pundits have made much of the fact that sanctions will be most effective on Iran if it focused on its imports of gas. Therefore, it shouldn’t be at all a surprise to the world that Iran doesn’t want to be susceptible to such blackmail in the future.
Growing Economy
The goal of a government is multifaceted and top among the list is to keep their populous safe from outside invaders trying to overthrow or destabilize their country (security) and to ensure that the livelihood of its citizenry can improve; the latter encompasses new innovative ideas that can eventually provide jobs and as a consequence improve the economy. As a governmental body you have an obligation to assess the effects a growing and or a changing economy, that is to say people with more or less disposable income, will have on the currently functioning system of government and develop a framework to ensure that the changes to the status quo class system will not have a destabilizing effect on the nation. As an example suppose that an additional 10% of the Canadian population became unemployed. The government would have to adjust it’s projected debt because of the new strain that is sure to be put on employment insurance as well as the negative effect on business’ that depend on a certain percentage of the population who’s disposable income allows for a certain amount of entertainment purchases. With the new projected debt numbers the government will be able to implement new policies to deal with new realities. These policies may include cutting certain social programs, raising or lowering taxes on a segment of population and other policies to limit the effect that the change will have on the greater populous. The sooner the government can detect problems the easier the changes will be to the citizens of the country. In the above example, if the government were able to detect a coming downturn in certain sections of the economy they could have implemented policies to avoid the worst case scenario and the changes could be more gradual and thus less of a shock on the nation. The idea that the government does not have the obligation to identify potential problems before they are moments away from a catastrophic catastrophe is why so many of Western nations find themselves grossly dependent on an energy source that is scarce and undependable. The Iranian government has identified a problem, a growing population a younger more technologically savvy demographic and their desire to become more modern, and a highly valued and coveted natural resource that is, between its borders, in abundance. Because this commodity, crude oil, is in such high demands the government of Iran relies heavily on its ability to feed the addiction of the world to grow its economy. Having identified the problem the government has certain well-defined choices. Following the pattern of Western powers it can continue to search for more of the commodity between its borders and around the world to quench the thirst of its population; refuse to modernize and accommodate the changes that are hugely desired and popular in its country or find new ways to increase its ability to accommodate the new reality of industrialization without stifling its ability to supply the ever increasing demand for its commodity by other industrialized nations. Giving these options with the knowledge of the Western experience the choice is simple, a new innovative way to supply its countries needs.
Other Energy Sources
The claim that Iran does not need anymore energy than it already has brings a lot of attention to Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear energy program but little if anything has been said of Iran’s seemingly broader plan to become fully energy independent and well diversified. Iran’s energy diversification program doesn’t stop at nuclear power. They are also well on their way to developing other power plants (with much less fan fair by external powers) such as a Solar power plant in Shiraz.
Greenhouse gases are not only a concern in the west by Western scientist:
Concern over the anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Build-up in the atmosphere resulted in increased iThe consistent interest of The Islamic Republic of Iran in CSP is documented through
actions already initiated in the early 1990’s.In 1992 the German Federal Minister for the
Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of the Federal Republic of
Germany and the Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran signed a “Memorandum
of Understanding Concerning Cooperation in the Field of the Environment” in Tehran.
To follow-up, Iranian and German experts organized the “First German-Iranian Seminar
on Solar Thermal Power Plants” in September 1993 in Tehran,sponsored by the Energy
Ministry and the Electric Power Research Center.nterest in Renewable Energy Technology. Due to its rapidly increasing
population and the urgent need for increasing the Production of Electricity awareness in
The Islamic Republic of Iran, the renewable energy technology including Solar Energy
have gained momentum in the Iranian industrial sector.<snip>
The consistent interest of The Islamic Republic of Iran in CSP is documented through
actions already initiated in the early 1990’s.In 1992 the German Federal Minister for the
Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of the Federal Republic of
Germany and the Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran signed a “Memorandum
of Understanding Concerning Cooperation in the Field of the Environment” in Tehran.
To follow-up, Iranian and German experts organized the “First German-Iranian Seminar
on Solar Thermal Power Plants” in September 1993 in Tehran,sponsored by the Energy
Ministry and the Electric Power Research Center.
Why hasn’t the entire energy strategy of Iran been a topic open for debate and discussion in Western media outlets? I suspect it’s because Wind Farms don’t do much to help the case for war. Iran’s Wind Farm Launched
Maybe if the United States had such a broad plan to supply its citizenry with energy they wouldn’t have to send soldiers to Iraq and sell the Iraqi people’s oil without metering it and “misplace” billions of dollars of American and Iraqi Wealth
Blessing in Disguise?
Much has been made by Bush administration dissenters that the United States has not bought into the idea that climate change is real and human beings are the cause. If the administration did buy into the idea Americans would certainly have to place restrictions on energy producing industries as well as push for greater funding of alternative sources of energy. This would have two major effects on the United States and the world as a whole. The first, and among many the most desired, is the positive effect, so say the scientist, cleaner sources of energy would have on the environment. Some argue that Hurricanes would become more powerful and happen more frequently and yet others point to the increase of breathing sicknesses of our children such as asthma. If these are in fact true then there is much to be gained by going clean. The second effect, and least discussed, is the benefit to the global economy. A lot of companies are heavily reliant on oil and gas and as a result the bottom line is negatively affected when the price of oil takes an upward trend to the extremes. Without getting into too much of the details of pricing it must be understood that among other things the basic rules of supply and demand are at work. As India, China and other developing nations becomes more and more dependant the cost of oil will continue to rise. We have, in recent years, seen the same thing happen to steel and other metals that are in high demand because of the industrialization of many nations. It is a major problem for the United States because all of the major developing countries are building an American styled economy, that is to say an economy based around crude. China has in recent weeks and months been signing new deals with Venezuela (who has claimed that by 2009 its sales of oil to China will triple) and Iran who has no ties with the United States government. Some pressure has been taking off the United States government with the recent victory of the Conservatives in Canada who are less inclined to move themselves away from dependence on American consumption of Canadian commodities but it is not something that the U.S government should use to develop an energy plan (unless Harper’s Conservatives can win a majority). If nothing more the Bush administration has recognized the need to slow the demand of developing nations for crude (in addition to trying to secure its own supply in the Middle East albeit in a less friendly manner than the Chinese government). The mainstream media picked up on a story earlier in the year about the Bush administrations offer to supply India with nuclear technology. Unfortunately, in typical mass media style they completely missed why the offer was relevant to the lives of everyday people. More was said about the fact that the U.S government received mangoes in return. The more relevant benefit to the United States was the inevitable affect that a more crude-independent India would have on global oil supplies. If they are using nuclear energy they are not relying on crude and that is a major consumer taken off the market (obviously not completely). I cannot say for sure but for some reason the Republican constituency in the United States is not much of a fan of having nuclear plants in the United States (It’s possible that the administration doesn’t care what Americans actually want) but giving nuclear technology to other consuming nations has similar (surely not all) of the benefits in a flat world as it would have if a plant were built locally. The bottom line is that the Administration understands the benefits of having other nations create the energy independent economy that the United States never had the knowledge to create when they were building their economy. Therefore, the Bush administration also understand that if Iran goes with alternative sources of energy they will be yet another country that is not competing with the United States for oil, and all the nations that Iran is inevitably going to transfer knowledge to will also be energy independent (see Indonesia and Venezuela).
Why Worry?
If the United States of America understands the benefits of nuclear independent nations one must ask why they fear an energy independent Iran. The one word answer is influence. If there remains major consumers of oil, which is to say major competitors in of a crude driven economy, and there will be (See China and more than likely India) then there will be an alternative to American hegemony. As mentioned before Chavez is already looking at ways to cut his nation off of dependence of American consumption and there is no telling how far his “Latin Revolution” will go to isolate the United States of America (Could it spread to Mexico?). If Chavez’s Venezuela is not dependent on the United States then the U.S has no leverage with his government and Venezuela can, as Iran will be able to, continue to make huge profits on exports of oil while using nuclear, solar and wind energy to power up locally. This pattern ensures that the riches of Oil filled nations will continue to grow (by feeding the addiction of crude centered economies) while its citizenry continues to industrialize. No harm is done to its greatest export and their in house knowledge can also become a source of revenue through knowledge transfers (Educating the population will obviously be key for this pattern to be successful at the end of it all). Hostile, Rich and capable of exporting the anti American ideology is what this pattern will produce and the United States sees that as a huge threat to the security and continued prosperity of the nation. Why the United States has, over the past 6 years, actively taken steps to produce the current situation is a topic for another day.
Working with the presumption of innocence it is hard to concluded, without doubt, that Iran is developing nuclear weapons (See IAEA reports). Objectively speaking there should be no doubt that Iran is developing its country and putting itself in a position to take independent positions on world issues without having threats of sanctions constantly leveled against it (and if they are brought up they won’t have a hugely negative effect on its citizenry). If the United States continues to aggravate oil rich nations they will turn to other consumers (a luxury that is only recent in its reality) and force future American administration to wrestle with the same issues the Bush administration has been wrestling with, “Who should be bomb and when?”. If American citizens do not want to be involved in endless wars until there is no more money in the non-defense budget they will have to force their government to moderate their relations with countries who don’t subscribe to American hegemony lest history sees American’s as nothing more than the latest Goliath who fell at the first act of courage he faced.
Unto Christ be the glory of the church throughout all ages; World without end.
Amen
See Also
Iranian Response: Destabalize & Conquer
Why Iran Has The Right To Nuclear Technology
Nuclear Standoff: How NOT to Negotiate
