The Science 2.0 Blog Staff reports that leading conservationists from around the world have called for environmental lobbyists to stop blocking nuclear energy in defiance of the science consensus. It is clean, it is green, and it is needed to mitigate climate change and protect biodiversity. In an open letter to environmentalists, over 60 scientists ask the environmental community to weigh up the pros and cons of different energy sources using objective evidence and pragmatic trade-offs, rather than simply relying on idealistic perceptions of what is green.
Organized by ecologists Professor Barry Brook and Professor Corey Bradshaw from the University of Adelaide Environment Institute, the letter supports their recent article in Conservation Biology. Full decarbonization of the global electricity-generation sector is required soon to avoid the worst ravages of climate change, says Professor Bradshaw, Director, Ecological Modelling at the Environment Institute and recently appointed Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change. Biodiversity is not only threatened by climate disruption arising largely from fossil-fuel derived emissions, it is also threatened by land transformation resulting from renewable energy sources, such as flooded areas for hydro-electricity, agricultural areas needed for biofuels and large spaces needed for wind and solar farms.
In the article, the researchers evaluated land use, emissions, climate and cost implications of three different energy scenarios - - business as usual fossil-fuel dominated - a high renewable-energy mix excluding nuclear - and an energy mix with a large nuclear contribution plus some renewable and fossil-fuel sources.
Original URL: http://www.science20.com/news_articles/conservation_scientists_say_nuclear_energy_is_necessary_for_biodiversity-151240
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