From a reader: Look at the footprint of solar panels it takes to produce the same amount as a nuclear plant, then tell me what’s better for the Earth!
Needless to say, I’ve heard this a great many times over the years. The subject is a bit complex.
While it’s true that nuclear offers far better energy density that solar (and wind), this is one of many criteria we use to determine the best resource(s). We might rank our presidents on the basis of how few wars the Unites States was fighting during their tenure in office, yet there are dozens of other important criteria: economic strength, lessening the gaps between rich and poor, etc.
Another way to look at this subject is to look at competing resources in a certain region. The central part of the U.S. has incredible wind resources; a normal day in the Nebraska grid-mix offers 70% wind.
If human civilization is to avoid environmental collapse driven by climate change, nuclear is going to be absolutely necessary, but only partially due to energy density; nuclear boasts high reliability and capacity factor, as well as low operating expenses.
In all, the world needs to hope that nuclear advances quickly; we won’t do well without it.
Thanks for the comment.
American workers who are facing agonizing and preventable deaths predominantly vote for the party that is condemning them to that horrible fate.
That’s just one of the many disgusting facets of today’s life in the U.S.
Oh my goodness! Is “Liz Churchill” right?
We hear all the time that Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served Americans’ health needs under seven presidents, created COVID-19 in a Chinese lab and deliberately inflicted it on U.S. citizens, killing millions. The anti-science right is cranking up the animus against the man, and now, tens of millions of Americans are desperate to have him sentenced to prison.
A few facts are presented below. What they seem to show is that whoever authored the meme here simply made up lies that would serve to undermine our scientific method and make all this crap fodder for the Fox News / MAGA crowd.
Unvaccinated individuals face a significantly higher risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 compared to vaccinated individuals. Historical and public health data consistently show that vaccines offer robust protection against the most severe outcomes of the virus. [1, 2, 3]
- Early Variant Spikes: During earlier waves like the Delta variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that unvaccinated individuals were up to 29 times more likely to be hospitalized. [1]
- Severe Complications: Hospitalized unvaccinated patients are more likely to experience moderate-to-severe disease, spend more days in the ICU, and have a higher likelihood of complications. [1]
- Financial Burden: A study by the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker noted that unvaccinated patients historically accounted for the vast majority of preventable COVID-19 health system costs due to lengthy, intensive hospital stays. [1]
- Elevated Death Rates: Data compiled by platforms like Our World in Data demonstrate a clear gap in mortality, with unvaccinated individuals dying at significantly higher rates per capita. [1]
Meet Reid Rasner (photo at left). He’s a MAGA Republican running for congress in Wyoming–that’s a good fit.
He faces three challenges, however:
1) He’s openly gay, a terrible fit for Wyoming,
2) His politics appeals only to the true idiot. While it’s true that voters there are not well-educated, they’re aware and alert. They’ve seen trickle-down economics fail consistently since the days of Roland Reagan, and they’ll be very hard to convince that democratic socialism as it’s implemented around the world makes the nation’s citizens poor, and
3) I hate to judge a book by its cover, but he looks like a dullard.
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