The IPCC Report and Nuclear Energy | The Nation

Good coverage in The Nation, not exactly a right-wing rag:

Liberals and the left are frequently critical of Republicans and the right for the manifest hostility to science, including of course their stubborn refusal to recognize the reality of human-caused global warming (not to mention, say, their denial of evolution). In the case of nuclear power, however, the left and many environmentalists have too often allowed themselves to be caught up in an almost superstitious fear of nuclear energy. Vast problems accrue to nuclear energy, of course, as with all technologies. But they can be solved.

via The IPCC Report and Nuclear Energy | The Nation.

Exactly what I’ve said elsewhere. It’s too often our own brand of “anti-science” (although I don’t particularly like that term). The fear does indeed border on the superstitious. Another thing that I find disturbing is the eerie sense of “told-ya-so” glee that sometimes accompanies the sharing of news (or “news”) of the latest bad report — the groundwater situation at Fukushima, for example. But that’s the subject of another diary, which I hope to write this weekend.

2 Comments

  1. James Greenidge says:

    I wish your excellent blog a long and educational life!

    Re: “..the groundwater situation at Fukushima, for example. But that’s the subject of another diary, which I hope to write this weekend.”

    The unpublicized low “risk” of _decaying_ radioactive Fukushima water harming anyone from seeping into the local water tables _pales_ compared to the contamination causd by the churning toxic brew of raw sewage and industrial chemicals to garbage and pulverized buildings and cemetry remains swept far inland by the tsunami and which has soaked and percolated into the soil in the whole coastal region. Even U.N. doctors are wondering why Japan isn’t citing any med studies or examination on this. Why? Hiding a far greater health/environmental hazard behind the skirts of Fukushima?

    James Greenidge
    Queens NY

    • Eric Schmitz says:

      Thank you, James! I have always appreciated reading your comments at ANS Cafe and other blogs. 🙂

      Indeed, coverage of the non-Fukushima related aspects of the disaster in Japan has been dismal. I saw another video last week of the tsunami surge coming in and devastating an urban area. I didn’t plan to spend 25 minutes watching it, but I found myself unable to stop. As I watched, I realized that this was just one small place, and that the same thing had happened over a vast area and in dozens if not hundreds of similar towns and cities. The mass of debris carried along by that unstoppable force was just mind-boggling. Later in that video, buildings could be seen burning out of control, thick black smoke pouring into the air. And to think that the same thing was happening all over the entire region!

      But that was one video that went semi-viral on Facebook for a couple of days. How many alarming articles about the groundwater have I seen shared on social media in the past few days? How many times have I seen that NOAA image (of the tsunami wave heights at various points in the Pacific), presented as if it were a map of radiation concentrations from “highly radioactive water pouring into the ocean”? I cannot begin to count. Part of me wants to ignore them, but then a more responsible part remembers Meredith’s words from a couple days ago: “Sometimes we have to answer.”

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