I was referring to the proposals put forward by organised movements and such, I’m aware that the average member of the public or environmentalist supporter isn’t very informed on the IPCC reports. (unless you meant something else and I misunderstood the first part of your reply)
Most of the opposition toward nuclear power plants came way more than ten years ago, I think? I really haven’t seen many environmentalists go out of their way to attack energy sources that aren’t fossile related in the recent years. Also, most of the opposition toward nuclear seemed to come from the general populace (at least in Italy, where I live. Here nuclear was banned after Chernobyl, for the general emotive reaction).
I do agree that no member of an environmentalist movement could really propose nuclear energy as a provisory replacement to fossil fuels, and that this is because of how people, especially environmentally friendly people, feel about nuclear energy rather than for a cost/benefit analysis, and that this is actually a notable hindrance in containing climate change.
But I also think that this unfortunate situation is mostly caused to the terrifying, striking nature of the occasional accidents, than to any process that could be changed by knowing more about the technology’s benefits.
Thinking about your example, though, made me realise that I were narrow in what I considered as the main environmentalist groups and factions, since I only really followed the proposals of the groups that were behind the massive mobilisations of last year and I didn’t really paid attention to groups that seemed ineffective or misguided in their objectives. I should change that part of my reply.
I do think that they are the groups with most influence at the moment, and still feel that the lack of awareness about the side effects of industrialisation is the bigger problem.
To give some numbers, the IPCC report of 2014 estimates an increased cost of 7%, for the necessary transitions to mitigate climate change, if no new nuclear power plants are built to increase the number of the current ones or to replace them. Waiting to start the transitions until 2030 rather than 2015 increases costs by 44%.
Note: For avoiding the climatic catastrophe it isn’t necessary to hit 100% renewables in the near future, I fear it’s a common misunderstanding since I had already this exchange with other people.
We only need to limit our emissions to what the ecosystem can actually absorb. We are still far from the point where relying more on renewable energy sources would start to cause problems, everything past that point is achieved by reducing a lot our energy consumption and cutting down the emissions produced by other sectors.
I was referring to the proposals put forward by organised movements and such, I’m aware that the average member of the public or environmentalist supporter isn’t very informed on the IPCC reports. (unless you meant something else and I misunderstood the first part of your reply)
Most of the opposition toward nuclear power plants came way more than ten years ago, I think? I really haven’t seen many environmentalists go out of their way to attack energy sources that aren’t fossile related in the recent years. Also, most of the opposition toward nuclear seemed to come from the general populace (at least in Italy, where I live. Here nuclear was banned after Chernobyl, for the general emotive reaction).
I do agree that no member of an environmentalist movement could really propose nuclear energy as a provisory replacement to fossil fuels, and that this is because of how people, especially environmentally friendly people, feel about nuclear energy rather than for a cost/benefit analysis, and that this is actually a notable hindrance in containing climate change.
But I also think that this unfortunate situation is mostly caused to the terrifying, striking nature of the occasional accidents, than to any process that could be changed by knowing more about the technology’s benefits.
Thinking about your example, though, made me realise that I were narrow in what I considered as the main environmentalist groups and factions, since I only really followed the proposals of the groups that were behind the massive mobilisations of last year and I didn’t really paid attention to groups that seemed ineffective or misguided in their objectives. I should change that part of my reply.
I do think that they are the groups with most influence at the moment, and still feel that the lack of awareness about the side effects of industrialisation is the bigger problem.
To give some numbers, the IPCC report of 2014 estimates an increased cost of 7%, for the necessary transitions to mitigate climate change, if no new nuclear power plants are built to increase the number of the current ones or to replace them. Waiting to start the transitions until 2030 rather than 2015 increases costs by 44%.
Note: For avoiding the climatic catastrophe it isn’t necessary to hit 100% renewables in the near future, I fear it’s a common misunderstanding since I had already this exchange with other people.
We only need to limit our emissions to what the ecosystem can actually absorb. We are still far from the point where relying more on renewable energy sources would start to cause problems, everything past that point is achieved by reducing a lot our energy consumption and cutting down the emissions produced by other sectors.