Joe Romm, the lead thinker at Climate Progress, has once again exposed the fact that he is not terribly serious about fighting climate change. In fact, he is so casual about the effort that he wants everyone to dismiss nuclear energy out of hand as being too expensive to matter, without even thinking about trying to solve the often solvable issue of cost.
If the television manufacturing industry adhered to Joe’s understanding of cost control, we might all still be looking at large, flat screen TVs with longing lust instead of having watched their prices drop rapidly into the affordable range.
Of course, so far, the nuclear industry has done a bang-up job of not controlling costs. We have cooperated in a long term effort to burden our amazing technology with so many cost-increasing features that we have priced ourselves right out of the market. In the process, we have done as much or more as the antinuclear opposition to make the world a dirtier and more dangerous place.
Joe’s latest rant about the high cost of nuclear energy came in a post purposely aimed at discouraging his followers from going to see Pandora’s Promise. He has not bothered to watch the movie, but he apparently feels qualified to offer a “resounding no” to anyone who might be considering investing just 90 minutes of their time to gain a new and useful perspective on one of the most important topics of our time.
I strongly disagree with that recommendation. You should see the movie and you should take all of your friends to see the movie. You should organize outings to encourage strangers to see the movie. It is an valuable contribution to a vital discussion.
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