Fearful Thinking Impedes Progress

Re “The Nuclear Option Revisited,” Opinion, July 8: If Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins and their “nonprofit” company had existed the day the first human discovered how to start a fire, they would have used the ignorance and superstitions of society at the time to forbid its use, stating these justifications: It’s not safe, the rewards are unproven, people could get burned, it makes smoke, how will we get rid of the ashes, what catastrophes would take place if we allowed its use to become commonplace? All of those justifications would have been true. However, had they been successful, there would be no humans on Earth today to find fault with them.

This kind of fearful belief system is the mark of Luddites. Every advance in human society has been the result of human intellect, and every advance is not now nor ever will be without risks. Regardless of imagined catastrophes, the result will always be the advancement of the human race.

David M. Descault

South Pasadena

Among the many falsehoods and misleading statements in the anti-nuclear article is the implication that nuclear energy is dead around the world. According to the 2001 World Almanac, as of 1999 there were eight countries that get more than 40% of their electricity from nuclear energy, led by France at 75%, and there were 38 new nuclear power reactors under construction in the world.

Donald B. Gennery

Glendale