February 7, 2017 E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D., Founder & National Spokesman The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation www.CornwallAlliance.org www.Facebook.com/CornwallAlliance The following is from a conversation among scientists on three continents about fossil fuels and nuclear power.
Selling Nuclear Power Based on Arguments of Its Low CO2 Footprint Selling nuclear by its lack of CO2 emissions has been a dumb idea all along, and the Greens are certainly not going to continue “supporting” it once it becomes clear we really must begin using a lot more of it. However, I wouldn’t put terribly much trust in the EIA’s estimates of worldwide fossil fuel reserves. Those and similar projections have an unbroken track record of grossly underestimating out beyond about a 20- to 40-year horizon (because that’s the horizon beyond which it doesn’t make much corporate profit sense to bear the costs of discovery now for reserves that won’t be used until then, and because recovery technologies keep improving). That’s from a source published 33 years ago. Since then the track record has continued. Yes, the finitude of the fossil fuels means we’ll get beyond their economically affordable use eventually (growing wealth also pushes that horizon farther out), but my studies lead me to think in terms of two or three centuries for gas and oil and much longer for coal.
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