{"id":2230,"date":"2011-04-04T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-04T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/nuclear-stewart-brand-vs-renewable-energy-mark-z-jacobson-at-ted.html"},"modified":"2011-04-04T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-04T22:00:00","slug":"nuclear-stewart-brand-vs-renewable-energy-mark-z-jacobson-at-ted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/nuclear-stewart-brand-vs-renewable-energy-mark-z-jacobson-at-ted.html","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear (Stewart Brand) vs. renewable energy (Mark Z. Jacobson) at TED"},"content":{"rendered":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/debate_does_the_world_need_nuclear_energy.html\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/static2.channels.com\/thumbnails\/assets\/ted-com\/feeds\/96-2144\/197376\/episodes\/10314142_TEDTalks--hd--TEDTalks---Debate--Does-the-world-need-nuclear-energy----Mark-Z--Jacobson-\/-Stewart-Brand--2010---jpg\"><\/a>\nStewart Brand of Whole Earth Catalog fame is a long-time environmentalist\nwho in recent years decided nuclear was necessary.\n(He also decided\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/deep-till-back-to-the-future-of-plowing.html\">\nno-till<\/a> was necessary, which was enough\nto convince me he&#8217;s gone barmy.)\nHere\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/debate_does_the_world_need_nuclear_energy.html\n\">at TED<\/a>\nhe debates Mark Z. Jacobson,\nwhose new study says we can\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/03\/how-to-power-the-world-with-wind-water-and-sun.html\">\npower the world with wind, water, and sun.<\/a>\nI think Jacobson should reconsider including building more hydroelectric dams,\nbut his study does demonstrate that we don&#8217;t need nuclear or biomass.\nBut watch it and see what you think:\n<p align=\"center\">\n<object width=\"446\" height=\"326\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\"\/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><param name=\"bgColor\" value=\"#ffffff\"><\/param> <param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talks\/dynamic\/NuclearDebate_2010-medium.flv&#038;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/DebateNuclear-2010.embed_thumbnail.jpg&#038;vw=432&#038;vh=240&#038;ap=0&#038;ti=881&#038;introDuration=15330&#038;adDuration=4000&#038;postAdDuration=830&#038;adKeys=talk=debate_does_the_world_need_nuclear_energy;year=2010;theme=bold_predictions_stern_warnings;theme=what_s_next_in_tech;theme=new_on_ted_com;theme=a_greener_future;theme=tales_of_invention;theme=technology_history_and_destiny;theme=design_like_you_give_a_damn;event=TED2010;&#038;preAdTag=tconf.ted\/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;\" \/><\/object>\n<p>\nHere is my critique of Brand&#8217;s arguments:\n\n<!--more-->\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.edge.org\/3rd_culture\/brand09\/brand09_index.html\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/www.edge.org\/3rd_culture\/brand09\/images\/14earth_190.jpg\"><\/a>\n<ul>\n<li>Need for constant baseload means need to develop storage, which includes\nbatteries, but also pumping water uphill, compressing air, heating salt,\nand flywheels, none of which are, you should pardon the expression,\nnuclear science.\n<li>Wind is a dilute source of power means it&#8217;s a distributed source of power\nand thus hard to all fail all at once, especially when combined with other sources.\n<li>&#8220;On rooftops is OK&#8221;: exactly! Put it on housetops and business roofs and\nparking lot covers and in rock deserts where there&#8217;s no life to bulldoze.\nOr on places like <a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/03\/wiregrass-solar-plant-completed.html\">part of the land for the Mud Creek Wastewater Plant, which is where the Wiregrass Solar plant is in Valdosta.<\/a>\n<li>&#8220;Renewistan&#8221;: oh, come on! Put it on rooftops!\n<li>He didn&#8217;t even mention wave and tide, which are quite reliable.\n<\/ul>\nBrand also kept harping on retooling weapons for nuclear fuel,\nwhile never mentioning mining of uranium, which devastates parts\nof India (see Vandana Shiva) and has been banned by the Navajos\nin the U.S.\n<p>A few of Jacobson&#8217;s points:\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/03\/how-to-power-the-world-with-wind-water-and-sun.html\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/www.stanford.edu\/group\/efmh\/jacobson\/jacobson2.jpg\"><\/a>\n<ul>\n<li>He actually addresses biofuels (and destroys them).\n<li>Footprint is not spacing: wind actually requires the smallest\nfootprint (base of pole) of any power source, and the land\nbetween the widely spaced poles can be used for all sorts of other\npoints.\n<li>Timelag to get nuclear deployed would let ice caps melt.\n<li>&#8220;Baseload is irrelevant.&#8221; We need to match actual need for power,\nwhich is higher during the day, and so is sunlight.\n<li>\nOne of the audience members brought up\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/03\/the-plummeting-cost-of-solar-electricity.html\">\nRay Kurzweil&#8217;s point about Moore&#8217;s Law for solar<\/a> meaning\nthat you can&#8217;t judge solar by just its current capabilities\nbecause it&#8217;s getting better rapidly and will continue to do so.\n<\/ul>\nJacobson sums it up:\n<blockquote>\n&#8220;We don&#8217;t need nuclear energy.\nThere&#8217;s plenty of solar and wind.\nWe can make it reliable.\nThat&#8217;s real data.\nThis is ongoing research.\nThis is not rocket science.\n<p>\nSolving the world&#8217;s\ncan be done if you really put your mind to it and use clean renewable energy.\nThere&#8217;s absolutely no need for nuclear power.&#8221;\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stewart Brand of Whole Earth Catalog fame is a long-time environmentalist who in recent years decided nuclear was necessary. (He also decided no-till was necessary, which was enough to convince me he&#8217;s gone barmy.) Here at TED he debates Mark Z. Jacobson, whose new study says we can power the world with wind, water, and [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,120,47,104,23,24,55,36],"tags":[8738,8719,4789,1623,1706,8737,1026,8713,4788,4787,2254,3549,8727,8716],"class_list":["post-2230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-biomass","category-climate-change","category-nuclear","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","category-water","category-wind","tag-biomass","tag-climate-change","tag-hot-water","tag-hydroelectric","tag-mark-z-jacobson","tag-nuclear","tag-photovoltaic","tag-renewable-energy","tag-so-alr","tag-stewart-brand","tag-sun","tag-ted","tag-water","tag-wind"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-zY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}