Still an optimist, I hope the continued divide between left and right in this country open our eyes to those that speak reason and practicality, such as Mr. Shellenberger.
In terms of global North corporations running amok with little to no accountability in the global South, the mining consortiums compete well against the fossil fuel consortiums. This is not to say don't manufacture solar panels or batteries for vehicles or -- for that matter -- smart phones. Only we should not assume that green tech comes with a free moral whitewash.
Nuclear power done right is a strong option. Finland, as I am sure your readers are aware, is perhaps the European leader on safe nuclear power: https://tem.fi/en/nuclear-energy
If we could overcome our America is always #1 in everything arrogance, I think we could learn a great deal from and benefit from cooperation with Finland on nuclear power. Time to rejoin the 21st century.
My apologies for the poor phrasing. You are obviously correct. France leads in total production from nuclear power, whereas Finland is about 1/3. What I was first struck by struck is that Finland has a highly impressive storage solution for nuclear waste. Built in geo-strata similar to what can be found in North America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYpiK3W-g_0 "Finland Might Have Solved Nuclear Power’s Biggest Problem"
One set of American concerns I've heard repeatedly is "we can't do this safely -- how can we store the waste?" When I saw the Finnish solution, I thought: "We need this."
So that what's I should have said, right? Rather than "leading in safe nuclear power" -- I'm sure France is strict about safety, and has the record to show it.
Second thing that impressed me was that although one older plant was taken offline, the remaining plants are known for their high efficiency and for the continuous improvement during maintenance. But again, France likewise has a record of success. Hey, if the French and Finns can do this right, maybe even the Americans can. But I'm not opposed to us actually learning from the successes of other nations.
When I was a newspaper reporter back in the 70s, my managing editor gave me a very loose reign in terms of writing a large number of stories that explained the so-called energy crisis.
Later on I could not but notice how wrong were the experts in the oil and gas production sector. Every one of my sources was giving into a Malthusian version of "we are doomed."
Then along came fracking.
While U.S. coal mines were creating waste material many orders of magnitude greater than all the nuclear waste in the world, many people believed the skillful propaganda campaign by Barry Commoner et alii.
After the tsunami in Japan, when there appears to have been no civilian deaths due to radiation, the green alliances in German demanded the closing of all of the country's nuclear power plants.
Thus Germany is struggling to create enough clean electricity, and has fallen back onto generation from coal burning plants.
And then along came Putin's war against Ukraine.
Citizens and governments alike refuse to understand how easily we might return to how we lived in the 1800s.
"Forced march to electric vehicles" precisely. These morons can't think. And they can't plan. Electric vehicles will run out of resources to build them in three years. What do we do then? Idiots.
That would be more of a problem if we hadn't been producing enough gas each year to power the global transport fleet for decades. The point is that the sheer volume of materials needed to create the proposed electric vehicles dwarfs the current capacity to produce + reuse the materials.
ECHO=="Forced march to electric vehicles" precisely. These morons can't think. And they can't plan. Electric vehicles will run out of resources to build them in three years. What do we do then? Idiots.
This is where I part ways with you. 40 years an anti nuke activist, I will never agree with Nuclear Power. I am shocked that a local renewable energy fuel such as BIOGAS is not exploited first. Centralized power facilities with grid upgrades are cost prohibitive. Distributed power solutions wherever we might find them, need some consideration.
Still an optimist, I hope the continued divide between left and right in this country open our eyes to those that speak reason and practicality, such as Mr. Shellenberger.
Michael, keep fighting the good fight! Major progress.
In terms of global North corporations running amok with little to no accountability in the global South, the mining consortiums compete well against the fossil fuel consortiums. This is not to say don't manufacture solar panels or batteries for vehicles or -- for that matter -- smart phones. Only we should not assume that green tech comes with a free moral whitewash.
Nuclear power done right is a strong option. Finland, as I am sure your readers are aware, is perhaps the European leader on safe nuclear power: https://tem.fi/en/nuclear-energy
If we could overcome our America is always #1 in everything arrogance, I think we could learn a great deal from and benefit from cooperation with Finland on nuclear power. Time to rejoin the 21st century.
If I remember WWII history, tiny Finland kicked the much bigger and well equipped Russian army in its collectivist butt.
And in recent times, France has led the world in the percentage of power derived from nuclear power plants.
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Nuclear_power_in_France
My apologies for the poor phrasing. You are obviously correct. France leads in total production from nuclear power, whereas Finland is about 1/3. What I was first struck by struck is that Finland has a highly impressive storage solution for nuclear waste. Built in geo-strata similar to what can be found in North America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYpiK3W-g_0 "Finland Might Have Solved Nuclear Power’s Biggest Problem"
One set of American concerns I've heard repeatedly is "we can't do this safely -- how can we store the waste?" When I saw the Finnish solution, I thought: "We need this."
So that what's I should have said, right? Rather than "leading in safe nuclear power" -- I'm sure France is strict about safety, and has the record to show it.
Second thing that impressed me was that although one older plant was taken offline, the remaining plants are known for their high efficiency and for the continuous improvement during maintenance. But again, France likewise has a record of success. Hey, if the French and Finns can do this right, maybe even the Americans can. But I'm not opposed to us actually learning from the successes of other nations.
Thank you for the link and the correction.
You are most welcome. I appreciate your response.
When I was a newspaper reporter back in the 70s, my managing editor gave me a very loose reign in terms of writing a large number of stories that explained the so-called energy crisis.
Later on I could not but notice how wrong were the experts in the oil and gas production sector. Every one of my sources was giving into a Malthusian version of "we are doomed."
Then along came fracking.
While U.S. coal mines were creating waste material many orders of magnitude greater than all the nuclear waste in the world, many people believed the skillful propaganda campaign by Barry Commoner et alii.
After the tsunami in Japan, when there appears to have been no civilian deaths due to radiation, the green alliances in German demanded the closing of all of the country's nuclear power plants.
Thus Germany is struggling to create enough clean electricity, and has fallen back onto generation from coal burning plants.
And then along came Putin's war against Ukraine.
Citizens and governments alike refuse to understand how easily we might return to how we lived in the 1800s.
"Forced march to electric vehicles" precisely. These morons can't think. And they can't plan. Electric vehicles will run out of resources to build them in three years. What do we do then? Idiots.
The majority of the resources used to produce EVs can be recycled and reused. Ever tried to use a gallon of gas twice?
That would be more of a problem if we hadn't been producing enough gas each year to power the global transport fleet for decades. The point is that the sheer volume of materials needed to create the proposed electric vehicles dwarfs the current capacity to produce + reuse the materials.
keep fighting!!!!
ECHO=="Forced march to electric vehicles" precisely. These morons can't think. And they can't plan. Electric vehicles will run out of resources to build them in three years. What do we do then? Idiots.
Cheering for ya!
This is where I part ways with you. 40 years an anti nuke activist, I will never agree with Nuclear Power. I am shocked that a local renewable energy fuel such as BIOGAS is not exploited first. Centralized power facilities with grid upgrades are cost prohibitive. Distributed power solutions wherever we might find them, need some consideration.
First we take Sacramento, then the world.