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I agree nuclear could be part of the solution, but nuclear is a dead horse and we can't just continue to beat it. It won't be revived as long as people don't fe

I agree nuclear could be part of the solution, but nuclear is a dead horse and we can't just continue to beat it. It won't be revived as long as people don't feel secure about it. Beside the obvious reasons for it's rejection (catastrophic failure modes, WMD proliferation, costs overruns, building delays, waste management, vulnerability to social instability, rising sea levels and freshwater shortage), we have to think about what it means to go full-on nuclear and enable the same kind of consumption growth that put us in this position in the first place. We're just going to create another environmental crisis down the road (which may or may not be related to all those reactors). We need to find how we can continue to improve our quality of life while reducing our consumption.

Karrot_Kream 5y ago
> We're just going to create another environmental crisis down the road (which may or may not be related to all those reactors How? What other environmental crisis do you see happening if we embrace nuclear? > We need to find how we can continue to improve our quality of life while reducing our consumption. It seems short-sighted to focus _all_ of our efforts on holding quality of life the same as reduce consumption. I certainly agree that this will be a part of the solution, but by constraining the problem thusly we make it much harder to solve. A robust mix of nuclear, renewables, and efficient consumption is much more likely to work than any of these three options alone.
- Valgrim 5y ago
  Of course I'm not saying it should be our one and only focus, but it should be our primary objective. I don't see into the future better than anyone else, but my guess? The sheer amount of resources we need and the waste we create is drastically reducing biodiversity around the globe, and keystone plant and animal species are on the verge of becoming extinct. This will cause a cascading ecological collapse, including our own food chain.
  - Karrot_Kream 5y ago
    > The sheer amount of resources we need and the waste we create is drastically reducing biodiversity around the globe, and keystone plant and animal species are on the verge of becoming extinct. But why? I'm not arguing that our current lifestyle in heavily developed countries is sustainable, but what makes you certain that we can't form sustainable habits? As long as humans have existed on the planet, we've become better at using available resources (though many of us have certainly died trying, as evidenced by the decline/collapse of many pre-Industrial civilizations through environmental damage). What about this moment in time marks the end of our ability to become more efficient?
ewindal 5y ago
It’s kinda funny that people are so afraid of burying a small amount of radioactive material, but are perfectly happy with dumping all the waste from fossil fuels in the air we breathe and the atmosphere we depend on to survive.

Karrot_Kream 5y ago

> We're just going to create another environmental crisis down the road (which may or may not be related to all those reactors How? What other environmental crisis do you see happening if we embrace nuclear? > We need to find how we can continue to improve our quality of life while reducing our consumption. It seems short-sighted to focus _all_ of our efforts on holding quality of life the same as reduce consumption. I certainly agree that this will be a part of the solution, but by constraining the problem thusly we make it much harder to solve. A robust mix of nuclear, renewables, and efficient consumption is much more likely to work than any of these three options alone.

Valgrim 5y ago
Of course I'm not saying it should be our one and only focus, but it should be our primary objective. I don't see into the future better than anyone else, but my guess? The sheer amount of resources we need and the waste we create is drastically reducing biodiversity around the globe, and keystone plant and animal species are on the verge of becoming extinct. This will cause a cascading ecological collapse, including our own food chain.
- Karrot_Kream 5y ago
  > The sheer amount of resources we need and the waste we create is drastically reducing biodiversity around the globe, and keystone plant and animal species are on the verge of becoming extinct. But why? I'm not arguing that our current lifestyle in heavily developed countries is sustainable, but what makes you certain that we can't form sustainable habits? As long as humans have existed on the planet, we've become better at using available resources (though many of us have certainly died trying, as evidenced by the decline/collapse of many pre-Industrial civilizations through environmental damage). What about this moment in time marks the end of our ability to become more efficient?

ewindal 5y ago

It’s kinda funny that people are so afraid of burying a small amount of radioactive material, but are perfectly happy with dumping all the waste from fossil fuels in the air we breathe and the atmosphere we depend on to survive.