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Why I think Kyoto is Bullshit. (1 Viewer)

currysauce

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Anti-Mathmite said:
Nuclear energy is the most dangerous method of generating energy. The effluent remains highly toxic and dangerous for thousands of years. At least with fossil fuels, the carbon can re-enter the carbon cycle after combustion.

Nuclear run-off affects things for thousands of years, and there is no safe way to contain it. Once it enters something, it can affect things for generations. It leads to cancers and other problems.

Only people who don't care about the future, who are stupid and ignorant are for nuclear power.

Setting up solar panels or any other harness is cheaper than setting up a nuclear plant. It is not clean, and it is not efficient.
do u do physics?
 

braindrainedAsh

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Did anyone watch the Four Corners special on Nuclear Power about a month ago? It was very interesting.... I certainly learnt a lot from it.

Personally I think a major pressing issue is the development of alternate fuels for cars etc like hydrogen fuel cells etc. I think we do need more green power, and I also think that nuclear (gasp shock horror) power may be helpful, but needs to be approached cautiously. The system they had in Sweden (i think) was absolutely amazing, including the system for disposal of the nuclear waste.
 

withoutaface

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The main problem with nuclear is "not in my backyard" syndrome.
 

loquasagacious

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Why dispose of the waste when you can make nuclear weapons with it though?

.....all the better for dominating antarticata with.
 

loquasagacious

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Because nuclear power generates hazardous waste?

Because advances in green power (photovoltaics and fuel cells in particular) are making them viable?
 

Not-That-Bright

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Of course when they're a viable alternative to replace existing sources of power we should move to them, at the moment they are not and nuclear power is.
 

loquasagacious

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Nuclear power isn't though.

Coal is cheaper, much much cheaper. We should keep using it till alternatives are good enough.
 

Not-That-Bright

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loquasagacious

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Is that meant to say O'really?

If so the answer is yes. Really yes.

Here's some quick facts:
1)It costs alot to build a power plant (not to mention the associated infrastructure).
2)Coal is very cheap because we have alot.
3)Advanced filtration technologies mean that coal power is actually very clean (and no the thick clouds pumping out of coal planst are not pollution they are steam - chode tower = steam, skinny tower = pollution.

So tied together we have: Coal power infrastructure is in place and cheap and quite clean to use. Versus the huge costs of building Nuclear plants, and the waste issues associated with their usage.
 

loquasagacious

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Why use nuclear at all?

We are in no danger of running out of coal, why not use it till alternatives are good enough?
 

Not-That-Bright

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If there's enough coal to go around for the next 100 years or whatever then I see no problem. It's just I think at the moment the only plausable energy alternative is nuclear power.
 

loquasagacious

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Presently yes its the only alternative however we have no real need to move to it.

Oh and our coal will last far longer than that.

Guess whats under the entire Sydney basin, coal. And even that is just the tip off the iceberg.
 

withoutaface

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Does that take into account exports though? (Assuming we export coal).
 

loquasagacious

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We do export coal and yes that takes it into account.

It measures how long it will last in terms of continuing consumption (eg extration for steel, power and export) and current growth rates (no not the greatest measure but you can't use any other).

All that taken into account our coal will last for a very long time, furthermore total world coal reserves from memory will take several hundred times longer than total oil to run out.
 

Slidey

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Coal will last Australia at least 350 years, and further Australian coal is low in polluting sulfur.
 

withoutaface

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I think that the major problem with Kyoto is that just about every other country in the world has it easier compared to the US. For instance Germany's 1990 levels were higher than their current ones (as far as I can gather) because of high pollutant East German industry, which has since been phased out, and England discovered natural gas deposits in the North Sea which have since made it less reliant on the more polluting coal. Meanwhile the US has gone through a huge amount of economic growth, and to roll its emissions back to 1990 levels would be an immense task, and imo the protocol should be altered to make it so that every nation has to reduce its emissions by, say, 10%, and this would mean that the burden of the US's reductions would be more spread out across the world.
 

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