Your Comments
This week, EPonline visitors had a lot to say about climate change related to the American Farm Bureau's position and a National Center for Policy Analysis report on nuclear power.
Here's a sampling of the eight climate change comments posted so far:
From Texas – There is a difference between claiming that the global climate is changing and claiming that human activities are CAUSING that change. There's pretty strong evidence that the climate is changing – as it has over the Earth's entire 4 billion year history. However, the claim that human activity is causing (not just contributing to) this change is not at all proven. Until evidence of such causative impact is available, it would be much better to address this issue in terms of human contribution to the problem. Of course, that position is not nearly as dramatic as the claim that we're destroying the climate.
From California – If the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a political group, hadn't removed scientific evidence in contradiction to their agenda and pressure scientists with contradictory conclusions to remain silent, I might be inclined to recognize the content of the report.
From Dave – It is a sad day, politics has corrupted our scientific community. These Scientists have lost all credibility ....throw them out and lets start all over and get it right this time. That is what a good scientist would do if he knew his lab data had been compromised, he would throw it out and start over, because there is no sense in moving forward when you know that outside factors have tainted your results.
Here are three of the 19 comments posted on nuclear power:
From New Jersey – How much energy does it take to mine uranium, enrich it, address environmental problems associated with mining, enriching and waste processing? How much CO2 is generated in these activities? What is the NET energy gain? These questions should be part of the equation. Of course, the same questions need to be answered for "renewable" energy sources, too. The REAL answer is more efficient energy use and energy conservation.
From California – Here we are 50 years into using this amazing source of energy and the ignorance surrounding it is as resilient as ever. Nothing compares to the energy density - that is, the amount of base materials from mining to refinement to "burning" to storage of spent fuel residues - of nuclear power plants. With 90+% average "on" time, near-zero emissions, small land-use footprint, recyclable spent fuel, dual-use (desal + power) capacity and spin-off uses (medical isotopes), name a better power source available NOW. Fear-mongering and alarmism are weak arguments to deny the use of nuclear power.
From Massachusetts – Nuclear power is the only real solution to global warming that works all of the time, anywhere. It's 100 percent carbon free, and it's the only real way that we can both grow the economy and help the environment.
Please let us know here what other topics you would like to see covered on this Website so we can broaden the conversation.