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The New Atomic Age We Need

This past summer, the Group of 7 nations promised “urgent and concrete action” to limit climate change. What actions exactly? Activists hope for answers from the coming United Nations climate conference in Paris, which begins Monday. They should look instead to Washington today.

The single most important action we can take is thawing a nuclear energy policy that keeps our technology frozen in time. If we are serious about replacing fossil fuels, we are going to need nuclear power, so the choice is stark: We can keep on merely talking about a carbon-free world, or we can go ahead and create one.…  Seguir leyendo »

When Alice said to the White Queen in “Alice Through the Looking Glass” that “one can’t believe impossible things,” the queen replied, “Why I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Creationists, who believe the world was created 4004 years before the Christian era, are like the White Queen. So, of course, are Japanese politicians who sometimes still seem to believe the myths about the divine creation of Japan and its Imperial family.

Unfortunately there are intelligent and educated people who, while not believing totally impossible things, tend to believe what they want to believe.

In this category are those who reject the scientific evidence about the effects of carbon emissions on climate.…  Seguir leyendo »

Last week a leaked draft of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that climate change will have severe ramifications for the global food supply, making it harder for crops to survive and leading to rising food prices.

This report, scheduled for publication in March, provides the latest evidence of the dramatic impacts that the shifting climate is already beginning to have on the planet and on human societies.

Clearly, climate change is a global challenge unlike any other we face, which is why I, along with a small but growing number of progressives, support a unique and potentially surprising solution to it.…  Seguir leyendo »

Le temps où les énergéticiens et les décideurs politiques s’interrogeaient pour savoir si le nucléaire devait être mis à contribution dans la lutte contre le réchauffement climatique semble révolu. Parmi les derniers signes qui en attestent, on peut relever la résolution que le Parlement européen vient d’adopter à une large majorité et qui souligne que «le passage, à l’échelle internationale, à une économie à faible intensité de carbone conférera à l’énergie nucléaire un rôle important dans le bouquet énergétique à moyen terme».De fait, tant en Europe qu’en Asie ou en Amérique, élus et dirigeants politiques ont intégré le fait que le développement du nucléaire peut renforcer les chances d’éviter à la planète un bouleversement climatique aux graves conséquences.…  Seguir leyendo »

La energía nuclear produce extraños fenómenos. Albert Einstein, pacifista durante la Primera Guerra Mundial, firmó en agosto de 1939 una carta dirigida al presidente Roosevelt, en la que al mismo tiempo que le alertaba de los peligros que significaba que el reciente descubrimiento de la fisión del uranio pudiese ser utilizado por Hitler para fabricar bombas atómicas, le animaba a que promoviese este tipo de investigación en Estados Unidos. Por supuesto, tenía sus razones: sabía bien hasta dónde podían llegar los nazis.

Más oscuras son las razones que hacen decir un día a alguien (el Sr. Rajoy) que no cree en el peligro de un calentamiento global, y al día siguiente manifestar su apoyo a la construcción de centrales nucleares, que si muchos defienden ahora es porque en ellas apenas se emite dióxido de carbono, el principal gas de efecto invernadero.…  Seguir leyendo »

By William Sweet, the author of "Kicking the Carbon Habit: Global Warming and The Case for Renewable and Nuclear Energy." (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 26/04/06):

TWENTY years ago, a huge plume of radiation spread west from the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Dozens of emergency workers were killed at the scene, while vast tracts of land were evacuated and still lie fallow. Rates of thyroid cancer soared among children in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, and sustained exposure to low levels of radiation in the area has killed or will yet kill thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of adults. The exact number of casualties will never be known.…  Seguir leyendo »