[spacephysics]

I think that’s a bit dramatic and airing on fear mongering. Other comment responses of OP have better sources, but I do not agree the “future is at risk” because of this.

I’m more inclined to closely watch geopolitical events unfold, as US hegemony becomes slowly unstable and potentially untenable.

If climate change were really really as dire as some say it is, we wouldn’t be half-assing our way via renewable energies which don’t have a power grid or power store nearly capable enough to handle a “fully electric future”

We’d be spending more money than the likes of other world powers on proven nuclear energy (unlike Germany who has decommissioned theirs in favor of coal)

I think I read the nuclear waste of nuclear power stations we have today could fit in a big Walmart? That’s an insane amount of energy density. That doesn’t include the potential for nuclear diamond batteries to reuse the spent fuel rods, or other upcoming technologies to reuse the waste.

Don’t get me wrong, we should look into truly renewable energy. But needing vast amounts of rare-earth minerals for solar panels and batteries from China, or nickel and cobalt from child-labor mines in the Congo doesn’t seem to line up with the ethos of “going green”

We should “go nuclear”

[eximius]

> If climate change were really really as dire as some say it is, we wouldn’t be half-assing our way

Yes, this is why people are worried. It is dire and we are half-assing our responses.

[redprince]

> I’m more inclined to closely watch geopolitical events unfold, as US hegemony becomes slowly unstable and potentially untenable.

Wait until you see what millions of people displaced by rising sea levels are going to do to political and economical stability worldwide. That's not going to happen in a far distant future, that's within 30 years. Bangladesh for example is expected to lose 17% of its land by 2050, displacing millions. Miami-Dade county will be 60% under water by 2060 when current projections come to pass.

> If climate change were really really as dire as some say it is, we wouldn’t be half-assing our way via renewable energies which don’t have a power grid or power store nearly capable enough to handle a “fully electric future”

The realities of climate change and its dire consequences aren't some doomsayers internet theories. We're completely half-assing our response to it despite the scientific consensus on the brutal consequences of our doing.

> We should “go nuclear”

That ship has sailed at least 20 years ago. Starting now with average construction times of 10 years plus they would come too late to make a difference.

Renewables are cheaper to build and faster to construct so that's were the world is heading.

https://www.iea.org/news/renewable-power-on-course-to-shatte...

[civilized]

I do wish we could overcome our squeamishness about nuclear. Because our climate circumstances are indeed dangerous. And in my opinion, they're quite a bit more dangerous than nuclear power would be, if we committed to scaling it up with a reasonable balance of safety and cost-effectiveness. It is only expensive because we hold it to a much higher standard of safety than any other power source. And understandably so, to some extent, because the tail risk from operating nuclear is greater, but we are facing tail risk from fossil fuels warming the planet as well, and I think that tail risk is much greater and much harder to control than that from nuclear.

I think we need less moralism and fear of complex systems, and more hard-headed, engineering-led cost-benefit analysis.

[magicalist]

If we're not moralizing, shouldn't this be if the cost-benefit analysis comes out sufficiently positive then we should commit to scaling it up?

[civilized]

Yes. I am not certain. I have the opinions I've given in my post, and a perception that a legitimate cost-benefit debate has been cut short by moralizing.

[nuancebydefault]

The thing is, today it is not dire enough for people to care enough. When corona was only in china, we were not very worried. When it came super near, it got us worried enough to take drastic measures. I'm afraid the same will happen with the reaction to climate change. When we feel we could die, we will take drastic measures. No way we will get extinct, but it will cause a lot of suffering and death.