[Vision2020] NASA's James Hansen On Climate, Energy, Industry: 4th Generation Nuclear Power?

[Ted Moffett]

The report from NASA's James Hansen on climate change and climate science,
energy options to eliminate carbon emissions, and the economics and politics
of these issues, available at the website below, is one of the best
statements on the problems I have read:

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2008/20080804_TripReport.pdf

Four points, among many that are excellent, stand out from my reading, with
the wording below being mine:

1) Coal plant emissions present the greatest challenge, so the world, or the
US, getting off Middle East oil will not stop anthropogenic climate change,
with coal reserves in abundance (the US has the largest coal reserves of any
nation; China's are also huge) and new coal fired plants being built (unless
with large scale carbon sequestration, still unproven).

2) Many of the carbon reduction schemes (emissions trading, carbon trading)
being discussed by industry, governments and international entities, are
insufficient to prevent radical climate change.  I quote "The Kyoto Protocol
and proposed extensions are an exercise in self-delusion and a prescription
for global disaster."

3) Development of 4th generation nuclear power plants that address many of
the objections to nuclear power may be a part of the solution to
anthropogenic climate change.

4) Solar forcing of current climate, the Little Ice Age and solar impacts,
and the 11 year sun spot cycle, are discussed in detail.  The discussion
utilizes data from spacecraft.  The conclusion is that forcing from human
impacts on climate will/are overwhelming natural variability due to solar
variations.
------------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20090408/ace1a205/attachment.html