My friends who advocate for increased beneficial use of nuclear energy often engage in discussions about techniques for responding to critics who frequently make up their arguments as the go along. We were taught in school that it is impolite and ineffective to engage in “ad hominem” attacks during a debate and to keep our […]
Climate change
Month long quest to convince a fossil fuel advocate to believe climate change
I just spent a fascinating couple of hours watching an ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) documentary titled I Can Change Your Mind About..Climate. Aside: Before that turns you off by making you think that the documentary lasts for hours, please understand that it can take me a long time to watch a show while preparing a […]
Integrated ecological modeling – positive results require healthy dose of nuclear fission
Barry Brook and Cory Bradshaw are the co-directors of the Global Ecology Lab. In less than three minutes, they provide an understandable picture of the lab’s mission and it’s scientific challenges. In the above video, Dr. Brook and Dr. Bradshaw explain the complexity of the systems they model along with the importance of using accurate […]
Lord Monckton advocates purchasing an entire news media infrastructure
George Monbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) provided a link to the following video in a tweet about the growing influence of Australian mining interests on the news media. Lord Monckton is one of the world’s most famous, and well paid, climate change deniers.
Challenging Master Resource’s implication that Enron was the only rent seeking manipulator
The people who operate Master Resource believe to the bottom of their pocketbooks that hydrocarbons are THE prime energy product. They often attempt to disguise their assumption; here is their explanation of the etymology of their chosen blog title: MasterResource is a blog dedicated to analysis and commentary about energy markets and public policy. Precisely […]
Doubt – confusion leads to inaction and benefits status quo
When there is an enormous revenue stream at stake, actions taken to delay making any changes can produce a good return on investment. There is no doubt in my mind that people interested in prolonging fossil fuel dominance over the world economy have taken action to insert doubt in the public consciousness about the hazard […]
Why is Al Jazeera worried that Asia is becoming “addicted” to nuclear energy?
A regular Atomic Insights reader sent me a link to a program produced by Al Jazeera English titled 101 East – Asia’s nuclear addiction that offers an interesting, if somewhat disturbing, point of view about nuclear energy development. About half of the program describes an effort to site a nuclear power plant in Indonesia and […]
Soft hearts should not be accompanied by soft heads
Yesterday, Vermont Governor Peter Shumulin appeared on Democracy Now to talk about the effect of Hurricane Irene on his Green Mountain State. Twice in the interview, he used the words irrational, but throughout the interview he and his interviewer were remarkably illogical. Though many parts of his state were being washed away by raging floods […]
Decarbonise South Australia and Brave New Climate visit The Atomic Show
On August 13, 2011, I braved the 13.5 hour time difference between Adelaide, South Australia and Lynchburg, VA to record an interview with Ben Heard, the force behind Decarbonise SA and Dr. Barry Brook, the well respected climate scientist who blogs at Brave New Climate. Aside: I used the phrase “braved the time difference” because […]
False media balance – radiation health risks contrasted against climate change
An Atomic Insights reader pointed me to Joe Romm’s recent post titled False Balance Exposed: BBC Gives Too Much Weight to Fringe Views on Climate Change, Independent Review Finds. Duh. In that post, Joe discusses how an outside reviewer has determined that the BBCs strong desire to show impartiality can result in providing poor information […]
Another blogger for nuclear energy – Decarbonise SA
I have just spent a pleasant hour perusing a fascinating site called Decarbonise SA (where SA = South Australia). Ben Heard, an Australian who operates a consultancy named ThinkClimate Consulting is the force behind the site. He is a man on a mission – to move South Australia’s electric power system to zero carbon dioxide […]
“Green Nukes” – Important climate change mitigation tools
Adam Curry interviewed Curt Stager, the author of Deep Future: The Next 100,000 Years of Life on Earth for his Big Book Show. During the interview, Curry and Stager spent several minutes discussing the potential for “green nukes” to be an important climate change mitigation tool. Aside: Adam Curry interviewed me four years ago about […]
