Environmentalists are pushing back against four prominent climate scientists who say the green movement should embrace nuclear power plant construction to help fight climate change.
E2-Wire wrote about the open letter from the four scientists to environmentalists on Sunday.
Several anti-nuclear environmental groups said Tuesday that it didn’t change their minds. Greenpeace wasn’t swayed by the letter from scientists James Hansen, Ken Caldeira, Tom Wigley and Kerry Emanuel.
“While we respect Dr. Hansen and his advocacy to raise the alarm about catastrophic climate change, we thoroughly disagree that nuclear power has any role to play in addressing the threat posed by global warming. If we are to abate the worst impacts of climate change we need solutions that are fast, affordable, and safe. Nuclear is none of these,” said Jim Riccio, nuclear power analyst with Greenpeace USA.
Friends of the Earth (FOE) wasn’t swayed either.
Damon Moglen of FOE said the group believes nuclear is a “dirty, dangerous, overly costly and proliferation risky failed technology of the 20th century.” He instead said there’s a need to “urgently” ramp up deployment of renewable sources and energy efficiency technologies in order to curb greenhouse gases.
And Michael Brune, executive director of the anti-nuclear Sierra Club, had this to say in a statement Tuesday:
The Sierra Club and our 2.1 million members and supporters respect these scientists, and thank them for their years of service. Unfortunately, we will have to agree to disagree with them on this one. While we agree that the climate crisis is the most urgent challenge of our time, this group is fails to acknowledge that wind, solar and efficiency are the faster, cheaper, and safer way to fight the climate threat.
Brune continues . . .
If Fukushima, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island have taught us anything, it’s that nuclear plants are too expensive, too slow to build, and too risky. That’s why countries like Germany – one of the largest economies in the world – are going all in on renewable energy sources and decommissioning dangerous nuclear plants.
He pointed to Gallup polling showing much higher U.S. support for wind and solar energy than nuclear power.
Continue reading at Greens dispute climate scientists on nuclear power
