Global warming skeptics: What do they have to fear?
Global warming skeptics worry environmentalism may cripple economies with assorted misguided energy-related boondoggles, Finley writes. Anti-nuclear environmentalists, Finley adds, have increased electric bills and greenhouse gas emissions, over fears of global warming.
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… better stock performance by rival wind companies suggests Vestas’s struggles have as much to do with investor confidence and perceived mismanagement as lack of demand.
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And from Wikipedia:
It is the largest in the world, but due to very rapid growth of its competitors its market share decreased from 28% in 2007 to 12.5% in 2009.
He also said that combined cycle power plants would have life spans of 30-40 years, creating sunk costs that will create an economic reason to keep using them. This may or may not be true:
….newer combined cycles have not been run long enough to obtain life-span operational and maintenance data.
But if so, it is not necessarily a bad thing. Wind, assuming that is a good thing, cannot exist without natural gas backup.
Natural gas companies love wind because it creates a demand for their product. Coal hates natural gas and nuclear as much as McKibben does. Confusing, isn’t it?
For some reason, the moderator gave McKibben the floor for the rest of the “debate.” Overall he talked for half of the allocated debate period, leaving three speakers to share the other half.
At 20:44 he finally mentions his partner Jim Hansen …but not the fact that he is pro-nuclear, again deception by omission.
See Larry applauding enthusiastically with the rest of the flock 24: 38 into the video seconds before McKibben makes his exit amid a standing ovation.
Conclusions
Not only have anti-nuclear environmentalists, by spreading fear and misinformation for decades, managed to significanlty increase electric bills in two of the biggest economies on the planet, Japan and Germany, they have also managed to significantly increase GHG emissions.
They are betting our children’s futures on the untested hypothesis that wind and solar will one day be able to carry the load without help from nuclear. Yet, very few, if any, expert nuclear proponents are naive enough to think nuclear alone can carry the day:
…this is something a smart grid could more easily accommodate [wind and solar intermittency] and, if the will (and money) materialize to build out a smart grid, the issue of renewable intermittence and nuclear energy’s usefulness as a full throttle energy source will reconcile.
It is entirely possible, maybe even probable, that McKibben’s anti-nuclear stance is doing his cause more harm than good. He admitted that he would lose followers if he gave up the stance, but at the same time, look at the present and very real impacts on Japan and Germany.
In addition, although his stance may keep his followers from splintering, as Nordhaus suggests, it has also hardened opposition.
Source: What Do Global Warming Skeptics Fear?
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