Nuclear power provides the best opportunity for the world to achieve the greenhouse gas reductions goals of the Paris climate accords, University of Oxford physicist Wade Allison reports in the Japan New Times. “Nuclear power may not be popular today, but it should be tomorrow. It is the best choice for our collective future. We should embrace it.”
Allison points out that the wind and solar power favored by the environmental left have their own environmental drawbacks. Environmentalists have documented how wind and solar power equipment requires the development of far more land than nuclear power to produce far less energy. Wind and solar power require the mining of substantial rare earth minerals, and rare-earth mining is one of humankind’s most environmentally damaging practices. Also, wind turbines are prodigious killers of birds and bats, including many threatened and protected species.
The most significant drawback of wind and solar power, according to Allison, is inefficient power production. “Water, wind and solar power cannot reliably provide energy on the scale required for a modern economy,” notes Allison.
“Yet, even if these massive and environmentally damaging structures were installed, they would be unable to produce enough energy reliably,” Allison adds. “Articles touting the peak power generation of wind and solar often fail to mention that, for periods that sometimes last many days, they offer little to none. If excess energy could be stored efficiently, the lean periods might be covered; but improvements in battery technology are limited by the laws of chemistry.”
Allison credits efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions via the Paris climate accords. The best way to do so, however, is not via wind and solar power.