Greens concerned at biased portrayal of nuclear issue
19 January 2006
Green Party Principal Speaker Keith Taylor today expressed his concern at aseemingly deliberate misrepresentation of public opposition to nuclearpower by a cross-section of the media(1-4). A report by the Tyndall Centre,using a MORI poll, summarises that, 'People tend to favour renewable energysources over fossil fuels, whilst nuclear power is the least favoured of thethree,' yet almost all major media sources focus on a single statistic in anattempt to show the public support nuclear power.
Various newspapers and websites including The Telegraph, The Guardian,Channel 4 News and BBC News cite that 54 per cent of people interviewedwould be willing to support new build nuclear power stations. The emphasison this statistic is a serious misrepresentation of the report's overallfindings. The authors state that this figure is indicative of a 'morereserved willingness (or reluctant acceptance) of new build power stations'(5). In fact, 78 per cent agreed that promoting renewable energy sources,such as solar and wind power, is a better way of tackling climate changethan nuclear power. Only 9 percent maintained that the number of nuclearpower stations should be increased while 84 per cent believe that nuclearpower creates dangerous waste and 70 per cent believe it is a hazard tohuman health.
Keith Taylor said: "The authors state that there has been a reframing of theclimate change as a choice between climate change and nuclear power. Theycomment that the majority of interviewees rejected this 'risk trade-off' infavour of lifestyle changes and a focus on renewables.
"The public have a more sophisticated understanding of energy issues thanthe government gives credit for and it is shocking that the media aremisrepresenting the debate. All the media simultaneously focused on a smallstatistic in the report that shows the result they were obviously lookingfor, and this raises questions about the freedom of our press from theinfluence of the powerful nuclear lobby.
"Nuclear power is dangerous, expensive, has long-term waste implications andcrucially, and produces carbon emissions. Other European countries currentlygenerate significantly more electricity from renewable sources than the UK -Denmark 20 per cent, Sweden 47 per cent, and Spain 16.2 per cent(6). Thegovernment needs to stop pandering to the nuclear lobby and work to ensurethat the UK no longer lags behind in Europe but is at the fore-front ofrenewable energy generation."
The Green Party is today launching its Green Energy Works campaign, aimingto increase and highlight public support for renewable energy. The campaignwill coincide with the DTI's own Energy review, which, it is widelyanticipated, will conclude that nuclear power is a viable option. Forfurther information please see www.greenenergyworks.org.uk
ENDS
Notes:
(1) www.timesonline.co.uk(2) news.independent.co.uk(3) www.guardian.co.uk(4)www.telegraph.co.uk
(5) Public Perceptions of Nuclear Power, Climate Change and Energy Optionsin Britain: Summary Findings of a Survey Conducted during October andNovember 2005, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, W Poortinga, NickPidgeon and I Lorenzoni, Understanding Risk Working Paper 06-02, page 19www.tyndall.ac.uk
