St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Fight climate change by using nuclear energy
What’s the best way to combat climate change?
James Hansen — one of America’s leading atmospheric scientists, who, in the late 1980s, was the first to tell Congress about the danger of global warming — says it is nuclear power. Since it accounts for more than 60 percent of America’s carbon-free electricity and is available around the clock, nuclear power is an obvious answer — one we’ve known for some time now. But it’s nice to hear it come from a highly regarded climatologist like Hansen.
With five new nuclear plants under construction in the U.S. and a new generation of small modular reactors on the horizon, nuclear power is positioned to play a central role in the effort to achieve a low-carbon energy future, despite a small, but vocal, opposition.
During the Paris climate talks late last year, Hansen, who was longtime head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, joined with three other prominent climatologists to say that “nuclear power paves the only viable path forward on climate change.”
In a joint statement, Hansen and the other climatologists said that the “voluntary measures” in the Paris accord on climate change are a “welcome step,” but far from sufficient. “The climate issue is too important for us to delude ourselves with wishful thinking. Throwing tools such as nuclear power out of the box constrains humanity’s options and makes climate mitigation more likely to fail.” In fact, the climatologists said, “nuclear will make the difference between the world missing crucial climate targets or achieving them.”
Previously, in a separate study, Hansen, who has solid environmental credentials, estimated that nuclear power has saved 1.84 million lives worldwide by reducing air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels, and will save many more lives in the years ahead.
