RE: Nuclear power
March 14, 2022 at 10:04 am
(This post was last modified: March 14, 2022 at 10:09 am by The Grand Nudger.)
The difficulty increasing energy production four times over (about what we'd have to do if everyone accounted for as much consumption as the average american) would be trivial compared to sourcing similarly increased rates of food and water for those same people. Nuclear power is precisely the sort of thing that could supply the whole world many times over at a fraction of the cost and with less risk than the way we currently do it - but that wouldn't put and end to fossil fuels.
As you note - there are compelling reasons to use them even if we had that nuclear capacity. Countries are developed using fossil fuels. Tanks and jets consume them. Our food is made from them and with them. After having burnt a metric shit-ton of fossil fuels to reach not only our current state - but some hypothetical future state of effectively limitless green power generation - it may be even more difficult to tell other countries not to do the same - precisely because those people would like to quadruple their own rates.
Ultimately, though, that's the play. We need to stop telling people that conservation is the way to solve the climate crisis. To have and use less, in any context by any terms. It's not. It's in having more. More for everyone. More all the time. More of all of the things. We burn fossil fuels to get things. Provide for those things and you'll wipe the earth very nearly clean of the entire industry.
As far as risks, seems like a moot point. Even the great and mighty chernobyl failed to off as many humans as the fossil fuel industry crushes on any given hour. Wars are fought over it. People are subjugated in it's service. The labor force is chronically ill, and uniformly impoverished. Then there's the whole -this could kill alot of us- thing going.
As you note - there are compelling reasons to use them even if we had that nuclear capacity. Countries are developed using fossil fuels. Tanks and jets consume them. Our food is made from them and with them. After having burnt a metric shit-ton of fossil fuels to reach not only our current state - but some hypothetical future state of effectively limitless green power generation - it may be even more difficult to tell other countries not to do the same - precisely because those people would like to quadruple their own rates.
Ultimately, though, that's the play. We need to stop telling people that conservation is the way to solve the climate crisis. To have and use less, in any context by any terms. It's not. It's in having more. More for everyone. More all the time. More of all of the things. We burn fossil fuels to get things. Provide for those things and you'll wipe the earth very nearly clean of the entire industry.
As far as risks, seems like a moot point. Even the great and mighty chernobyl failed to off as many humans as the fossil fuel industry crushes on any given hour. Wars are fought over it. People are subjugated in it's service. The labor force is chronically ill, and uniformly impoverished. Then there's the whole -this could kill alot of us- thing going.
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