On this 40th Earth Day I hope people recognize that we are moving in a positive direction by encouraging the peaceful use of nuclear technology and working to reduce the threat of nuclear war and nuclear terrorism. These twin accomplishments make 2010 the most significant year in decades of nuclear achievements.
Well worth a read.
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Our old friend Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has a run at the question, Is Nuclear Green?
Nuclear turns out to be the gold standard. You can produce a million megawatt-hours of electricity a year – that’s the standard they chose – from a nuclear reactor sitting on one square mile. That’s enough electricity to power 90,000 homes. A coal-powered plant absorbs four square miles when you count all the land required for mining and extraction. A solar thermal plant, where they use big mirrors to heat a fluid, takes six square miles. Natural gas takes seven square miles and petroleum takes 17 – once again counting the land needed for drilling and refining. Photovoltaic cells that turn sunlight directly into electricity take 14 square miles and wind is even more diluted, taking 28 square miles to produce the same amount of electricity.
We always attend to Alexander’s thoughts on nuclear energy. He’s absolutely right about nuclear energy’s ability to produce a tremendous amount of electricity in a relatively contained space. We may tilt a bit more to the opinion that there’s a lot of unused land out there that could be turned to energy generation, but that doesn’t negate Alexander’s thesis at all. It’s a very strong bow in the quiver.
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Although we didn’t find this article all that interesting – it promised a nuclear-wind “smackdown” that doesn’t materialize – writer Eric Rosenbaum gets the optics about right:
Thursday is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, and this year, it's not just the renewable energy companies that are celebrating.
Some conventional -- not to mention controversial -- energy sector players have been given recent reason to celebrate, from nuclear power plant operators to offshore oil and gas drillers.
And celebrate we shall. And the controversy? Eh – nuclear is riding above 50% and 60% in the polls. We’ve seen more controversial things.
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Entergy throws its hat into the Earth Day celebration, as well it should:
It is celebrated nationally on April 22 annually, but at Entergy we are committed to make every day Earth Day through business actions to support the environment. Sustainability isn’t just a fancy word to us, it means being responsible for helping to reduce the carbon footprint we all make – through clean nuclear power, through changing light bulbs and so much more.
It’s repurposed a lot of material for its Earth Day section – lots of good reading.
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And of course, where would we all be without our friends at the Washington Times?
We're hearing a lot these days from the nation's capital about the coming "clean-energy economy" and all the green jobs we'll get out of it. If truth-in-advertising laws applied to politics, however, you'd have to replace the word "clean" with "costlier" - which is why this agenda is very bad news for jobs and the economy.
It’s like finding a spider on your birthday cake, isn’t it?
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But let’s close on a positive note. Here’s a list of things you can do today and everyday to celebrate the earth. We like it because it harks back to the idealistic, perhaps slightly naive beginnings of Earth Day in 1970, when we kids would sing This Land Is Your Land and pick up the litter at the local park. We may hope that that idealistic, slightly naive quality lives today.
I roamed and I rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
While all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me.
From This Land Is My Land by Woody Guthrie (pictured – click to see larger.)
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