Stop Buying Birthday and Christmas Presents for your Grandchildren

Ken Caldeira experiences "Macabre Indifference" when doing the rounds, lecturing to those interested in environmental issues.

We're prepared to continue sending 2 million people a year to early graves, alter atmospheric chemistry and acidify oceans, because it would reduce our standard of living by a tiny amount


Stop buying birthday and Christmas presents for your grandchildren and give them a better planet to live on instead ! 

Caldeira on Climate Science and Choices
To paraphrase: 
If you asked a room-full of people - If your present energy system did not dump waste into the atmosphere and the oceans and a cheaper energy system was available that did do that, would you choose to save a tiny amount of your income to adopt the new system? The result would be - "...almost nobody has ever come up and been willing to take that trade..."

Ask the question in reverse - meaning would most people give up a tiny amount of their income for an emissions-free, less polluting system? The result would be - "...they're reluctant to do that..." 

Caldeira on Climate Science and Choices (Pt. 2)
"...we can act ethically, when acting ethically is cheap, but when acting ethically is expensive, we tend to cut corners.

And so, having cheap, feasible, alternative energy technologies, that are environmentally benign, seems central..."

And this is what Ken Caldeira and James Hansen are prepared to go public about:
'To those Influencing Environmental Policy But Opposed to Nuclear Power'

Have you heard the one about the Entrepreneur, the Climate Scientist and the Nuclear Engineer?

Some of what the Letter had to say:

Energy Security: "...Unlike today's nuclear reactor, the IFR can generate unlimited amounts of inexpensive clean power for hundreds of thousands of years..."

Proliferation Resistant: "...It provides an excellent solution for what to do with our nuclear waste because it can use our existing nuclear waste for fuel and it is significantly more proliferation-resistant than other methods of dealing with nuclear waste..."

Much Much Safer: "...The IFR is also inherently safe. In an emergency, unlike today's reactors, it shuts down without human intervention and without requiring electric power …"

Affordable: "... Hundreds of nuclear scientists believe this technology has the ability to generate carbon-free power at a cost per kW less than coal..."