|
The world now seems to have agreed on the urgency of limiting climate change. But how long will it take for us to get there, a world powered by clean energy that is? Could the development and adoption of new nuclear technologies take us there faster? In his speech, Mr. Gore quotes a US poet Wallace Stevens: ‘After the final no comes yes, and on that yes the future world depends.’ Is nuclear energy now in the stage of a ‘final no’? Watch Al Gore talk about climate change and how he believes the solution looks like in a recently published TED talk.
|
|
|
In his talk, Mr. Gore presents and answers three questions. Do we have to change? Can we change? Will we change? Yes, yes and yes, believes Mr. Gore. "When any great moral challenge is ultimately resolved into a binary choice between what is right and what is wrong, the outcome is foreordained because of who we are as human beings."
|
|
Indeed, the world now seems to have agreed on the urgency of limiting climate change. Nations participating the climate meeting in Paris last November committed to working together to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions. China has announced that it will launch a national carbon market by 2017. The US is retiring coal plants in a fast pace.
"Clean energy development is the biggest new business opportunity in the history of the world”. Investment in new generating capacity of renewable energy sources has surpassed that of fossil fuels and the gap is growing each year. Projections for new capacity from renewable energy sources vs. that from fossil fuels reflect this change in investment focus.” What if you add nuclear to the equation of clean energy sources on top of solar and wind? Mr. Gore believes the effect could be dramatic. “If you add the projections for nuclear, and particularly if you assume that the work many are doing to try to break through to safer and more acceptable, more affordable forms of nuclear, this (increase in clean energy capacity) could change even more dramatically”. Is nuclear energy now in the stage of a ‘final no’? Is the breakthrough of new nuclear technologies just around the corner? |
|
"...break through to safe and more affordable forms of nuclear..." at 15:45
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
|