yknow. that whole yellowcake/uranium paint debacle on tiktok kinda reminds me how anti-nuclear propaganda hurt the ability for us to actually consider nuclear energy as a cleaner and cheaper way of powering our cities and countries overall.
I really think we need to actually sit down and think about how when you hear nuclear energy, as in the thing that could power our homes and cities and what have you, we think weapon and danger when those are not the same, the why, and who's pushing that idea forward still. When we talk about cleaning up the environment and environmental justice, we really should consider including the push for nuclear power on top of renewable energy.
Why do we fear that when far more people have died from silent killers like air and water pollution by the contaminants and forever chemicals released into the environment by large corporations who are responsible for producing said harmful, unrecyclable materials into the environment?
Why do we fear nuclear energy when these same corporations who caused this in the first place either A. straight up lie and greenwash, or B. gaslight us, the consumers, into believing it's our fault that we're in this mess via ✨aesthetically-pleasing✨, feel-good "environmental campaigns against climate change," diffusing the responsibility from a few, wealthy corporate folks who have more resources and money than all of us combined amongst the wider population?
This doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the intersectional problems that we tend to ignore when talking about cleaning up the environment and how the locations that get affected the most are poorer, non-white areas and countries since these corporations can throw around their weight and get away with dumping their filth in their environment, their waterways, and their air. This doesn't even include, paradoxically, how corporations are ok with using this fact to then further shove sole responsibility onto the consumers to fix their problem.
The amount of fear and energy we put against clean, nuclear energy needs to be reassessed and rerouted toward the corporations who created this mess in the first place. We also need to ask why these same corporations, including oil companies are actively lobbying and supporting the anti-nuclear narrative and ask why we're ending up on the same side of oil companies about nuclear energy. Because I can certainly tell you what isn't their reason for lobbying against nuclear energy--your health and best interests as consumers and the wider public.
