Saving the Planet Requires Nuclear Power

Climate Change, Anthropocene, & Associated Issues

Date posted: 01/12/16

A. Barton Hinkle, of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, opines that for years, climate-change proponents have been ripping into skeptics for having closed minds. And for good reason. Generally speaking, the typical global-warming doubter takes the view that the convergence of evidence from decades of peer-reviewed research by the best scientific minds in the world is a bunch of politically driven horse-puckey, but any random blog post or talk-radio factoid challenging that scientific consensus is so plainly true it is not even worth checking. This is not what anyone would call an intellectually rigorous position. This does not mean that any given statement about climate change is irrefutable. Or that skeptics do not raise some good points. Or that scientists can never be wrong. It simply means that many climate-change skeptics do not like to confront facts that contradict their cherished beliefs. (Who does?) So they seize only on evidence that might confirm their beliefs instead. But climate-change activists fall prey to this confirmation bias, too. And a lot of them seem to be suffering from it with regard to nuclear power. If you truly believe global warming is the greatest threat facing human civilization, then you ought to consider nuclear power a godsend. Restricting carbon-dioxide emissions to levels that can keep global warming within 2 degrees Celsius is immensely easier with nuclear power, and perhaps impossible without it. Renewables will not do it. Some climate proponents are quick to say so. The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report noted that global-warming mitigation scenarios anticipate at least a doubling, and perhaps a tripling, of nuclear power by 2050. The stabilization of (greenhouse-gas concentrations) at a level consistent with (earlier agreements) requires a fundamental transformation of the energy supply system, the IPCC says. It cites research suggesting the need for the construction of 29 to 107 new nuclear plants per year, depending on targets.