(January 9, 2014) 300+ Environmental and Clean Organizations tell climate scientists: We love your work on climate, but stop promoting dangerous, dirty, expensive, and counterproductive nuclear power! NIRS, WISE and the Civil Society Institute released the text of a grassroots response to renowned climate scientist Dr. James Hansen and three colleagues, urging them to reconsider their support for nuclear power as a climate solution. In a press release announcing the letter, the groups challenged Dr. Hansen to a debate on the issue. Today's letter was in response to an open letter to environmental groups, urging support for new nuclear reactors across the world, that the four scientists published in November. The NIRS/WISE/CSI letter was signed by more than 300 organizations worldwide--including many of your groups! Thank you so much for your support--this is an unprecedented number of groups for a letter and outreach campaign lasting only three weeks and including the holiday season.
You can read the press release about the letter here. We encourage you--especially if your group signed the letter--to put your own organizational information on the release and send it to your local media. You can read the letter itself, with all signers, here. The original letter from the four climate scientists is here.
The November letter from the climate scientists is considerably toned down from some of Dr. Hansen's other statements over the past couple years, which increasingly sound like they were taken from a nuclear industry briefing paper. And Dr. Hansen himself has continued to take a more aggressive pro-nuclear stance, most recently in an appearance before a UN briefing in December attended by a NIRS board member. In contradiction to the stunning growth and prospects for clean renewable energy--which can and already are being deployed much more quickly and cheaply than new nuclear reactors--Hansen and his colleagues consistently downplay the ability of clean energy sources and energy efficiency to play a major role in our energy future.
On December 20, for example, the international firm Credit Suisse predicted that 85% of all new U.S. energy demand through 2025 will be met by renewable energy sources. The clean energy future is here: all that stands in the way are political decisions and statements from scientists such as these--expert on climate but not so much on energy, but who should know better--that serve only to support the increasingly obsolete nuclear power industry.
Said the letter signed by 311 organizations from 22 nations, “Instead of embracing nuclear power, we request that you join us in supporting an electric grid dominated by energy efficiency, renewable, distributed power and storage technologies. We ask you to join us in supporting the phase-out of nuclear power as Germany and other countries are pursuing. It is simply not feasible for nuclear power to be a part of a sustainable, safe and affordable future for humankind. We would be pleased to meet with you directly to further discuss these issues, to bring the relevant research on renewable energy and grid integration to a dialog with you."
Again, thank you to all the groups that signed this letter! Your help in spreading this message to your local media is greatly appreciated. We will keep you informed about future actions and any debates or public events that may occur.