The Warming Story That Won't Go Away

Two days ago, my colleague Lisa Shell debunked the talk coming out of Europe that nuclear power plants can't possibly help battle global warming in light of some of the cooling related outages we've seen there recently.

Despite this, we still see examples of folks who are repeating the anti-nuke talking points verbatim without asking any serious questions of the folks who are leveling the charges. In particular, I'm referring to Susan Sachs of the Christian Science Monitor and eco-blogger Joel Makower, who links to the Sachs story and calls on the nuclear industry to answer the charge.

What's so frustrating in this case is that neither seemed to make an effort to talk to a professional in the nuclear industry before sitting in front of the keyboard. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a legitimate questions to ask, which is why I asked Lisa to give it the once over when I saw the stories surface last week. But to not give us a chance to respond is simply irresponsible.

UPDATE: Joel, to his credit, has added a reference to Lisa's post. However, in a nod to accuracy, he should have noted that he had appended the post after the fact, instead of making it appear as if his reference to Lisa's post had been there from the beginning.

UPDATE: And the story continues to spread. Amazing.

UPDATE: Here's another one. Feel free to stop by and leave comments on these blogs that I point to. All I ask is that you be factual and respectful. Don't be a troll.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Energy, Technology, Electricity, Environment