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Paddling upstream on a hope and a prayer

By Peter Ridd - posted Thursday, 27 March 2008


If one really believes in the greenhouse Armageddon, then why throw away our only guaranteed method of replacing coal electricity generation. Instead we are supposed to place our faith in solar and wind generation, both promising but unlike nuclear power, untested and unproven for producing large scale baseload power. This is a high risk strategy.

I can only conclude that those who oppose nuclear power do not really believe in anthropogenic global warming, but follow along with the mantra to prove their green credentials. The alternative is that they have not considered the real risks. There are certainly risks associated with nuclear power - but we will lose far more lives if the doom scenarios of the IPCC are to be believed.

Australia has ended up with a government that is supposedly committed to greenhouse reductions but with no hope of achieving its objective. Without population control, our task is virtually impossible no matter what technology we employ. Without nuclear power we are relying on hope and faith.

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This sorry story does not give me much hope that we are able to approach these environmental issues with the cold logic that is required. So let’s hope that the whole greenhouse phenomenon is just a lot of hot air and take consolation from the fact that the world has not got any warmer since 1998, and that we have seen record low temperatures throughout the world in the last year. There is a good chance that the problem will go away by itself.

To conclude, the only good reason to abandon nuclear power is if you are a greenhouse skeptic like me, and relentless population growth is bad no matter what the climate might do.

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This article was written in the author's capacity as a member of the Australian Environment Foundation.

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About the Author

Peter Ridd is a Reader in Physics at James Cook University specialising in Marine Physics. He is also a scientific adviser to the Australian Environment Foundation.

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