We are living in strange times. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a conservative politician and until a few months ago, a longtime supporter of nuclear power, has vowed to shutter her nation’s 17 nuclear reactors and make renewable power, such as wind and solar, Germany’s dominant source of energy by 2030. Meanwhile, staunch British environmentalist George Monbiot, the…Continue Reading…
Eduardo Zorita packs a lot into this post. I’m not sure it coheres but it’s quite interesting. He touches on the importance of expert authorities and the IPCC and muses on “the interaction between technology and democracy”: We have now several new technologies that have been developed in the last few decades, which the individuals…Continue Reading…
The Guardian is hosting the Helen & George show this week. It’s reminiscent of this classic episode from the Seinfeld annals. On a related note: in the department of nuclear mea culpas, here’s Mark Lynas in The Economist: I entirely understand the arguments espoused by anti-nuclear campaigners, especially because I used to make them myself…Continue Reading…
At Climate Central, I take stock of Monbiot’s recent onslaught against the anti-nuclear movement. Check it out and chime in over there. **** P.S.- The RSS feed for Frontier Earth is now fixed. Also, comments will be approved promptly (except when I’m asleep!).
George Monbiot is on quite a tear. His latest riposte begins: Over the last fortnight I’ve made a deeply troubling discovery. The anti-nuclear movement to which I once belonged has misled the world about the impacts of radiation on human health. The claims we have made are ungrounded in science, unsupportable when challenged, and wildly wrong….Continue Reading…
Well, George, I did warn you. Here is Monbiot, sounding gobsmacked by the outcry to his recent pro-nuclear power column: The accusations have been so lurid that I had to read my article again to reassure myself that I hadn’t written the things that so many of my correspondents say I wrote. Not everyone is foaming…Continue Reading…
Michael Levi on why we don’t have a rational discussion: Most advocates can’t admit that there are any downsides to nuclear power. Most opponents can’t accept that nuclear power has anything going for it. But a commenter at his site, who is a Stanford law professor and energy policy expert, makes a good point about…Continue Reading…
George Monbiot makes his case: Even when nuclear power plants go horribly wrong, they do less damage to the planet and its people than coal-burning stations operating normally. This should be fun. George, time to crank up one of the classics:
The news out of Japan keeps getting worse, and the images are heartrending. The situation with the nuclear reactors continue to unfold in an alarming manner. For those trying to grasp the technical side of that story, I found this write-up in Nature quite helpful. Most of the news media coverage right now is understandably…Continue Reading…
Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus of the Breakthrough Institute advance their argument for a “third pathway” in the energy/climate debate. The two dominant sides, they assert, have constructed increasingly baroque fantasies of the other. To partisan greens, skeptics are fossil fuel-funded and brainwashed planet killers too stingy to spend a postage stamp a day to…Continue Reading…