CNN Opinion: Nuclear power's time has come (By Stewart Brand)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/02/22/brand.nuclear.power.pro/index.html

Nuclear power's time has come

(CNN) -- For decades, pioneering environmentalist Stewart Brand, the founder and editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, opposed the use of nuclear power. Now he sees it as vital to efforts to combat climate change.

Earlier this month, Brand made the case for nuclear power in a debate with Stanford University professor Mark Jacobson at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California. (TED is a nonprofit that took its name from the subjects of technology, information and design and is dedicated to "Ideas worth spreading." It publishes talks on all subjects at http://www.ted.com/)

His outspoken support for nuclear power comes as the White House has been pushing for the first new nuclear plants in the United States in three decades. Last week, President Obama announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for adding two nuclear reactors at an existing plant in Burke County, Georgia, near Augusta.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/02/22/jacobson.nuclear.power.con/index.html">Mark Jacobson says nuclear power is too risky

Brand says his turnabout began in 2002, when the Global Business Network, a consulting organization he co-founded, did a project on climate change for the U.S. Secretary of Defense. In an interview with CNN.com, Brand said the project showed him that the globe's climate can change abruptly: "It goes over some tipping point and suddenly you're in a situation that you don't like and you can't go back. That got me way more concerned about climate as a clear and present danger than I had been."

...

[kristopher]

1. Also see

Four Nuclear Myths: A Commentary on Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Discipline and on
Similar Writings
Journal or Magazine Article, 2009
http://www.rmi.org/rmi/Library/2009-09_FourNuclearMyths
Some nuclear-power advocates claim that wind and solar power can’t provide much if any reliable power because
they’re not “baseload,” that they use too much land, that all energy options including new nuclear build are needed
to combat climate change, and that nuclear power’s economics don’t matter because climate change will force
governments to dictate energy choices and pay for whatever is necessary. None of these claims can withstandanalytic scrutiny.

http://www.rmi.org/rmi/Library/2009-09_FourNuclearMyths

[kristopher]

2. Kicked because both sides deserve to be read...

[joshcryer]

3. I want to see the debate between Jacobson and Brand, anyone have a link?

[Dogmudgeon]

4. I'm not sure it's been released yet

I'm waiting for it, too, and I check back there once or twice a week. It's possible MZJ didn't get copyright clearance from Stanford yet (see below about Brand).

TED.com doesn't even have much information on Jacobson. But they do have a page of Brand's stuff, since he's been a TED supporter for some time, and started The Long Now Foundation.

Here are a few links to get you started:

http://blog.ted.com/2010/02/provocation_rou.php">Provocation, Session 5 and check out some of the other speakers, too.

http://www.ted.com/speakers/stewart_brand.html">Stewart Brand's bio and links to some TEDTalks
http://www.ted.com/talks/stewart_brand_proclaims_4_environmental_heresies.html">Four Environmental Heresies -- Stuart Brand TEDTalk

I wish I had more on Jacobson, but it's either not there, or I somehow missed it during one of my several searches of the website. Please post it if you find it first. And until you find it, you might want to watch some of the TEDTalks. Many of them put more into 4 minutes than most TV puts into an hour -- even educational cable. (Well, 15 minutes in the case of educational cable -- but the TED videos are still excellent.)

--d!