Creator of the Gaia Hypothesis Urges Nuclear Power

SteamyMobile writes "Professor James Lovelock, creator the Gaia Hypothesis and long-time intellectual leader of the Green movement, says that global warming is a dire threat, more urgent than was previously realized. He compares the threat of global warming with the threat of the Nazis in 1938, and says that in both cases, the Left was not able to grasp the urgency of the situation and see the necessary solution. What is the necessary solution to stop the global warming problem? He says it's nuclear power. Needless to say, the Greens don't agree with him, and he chides them as having irrational phobias of a safer, cleaner energy sources. Even if the "Left" isn't fully aware of the urgency of the world's energy problems, it seems like Slashdot is."

Go Go Godwin!!

[wfberg]

Totally off-topic Nazi comparison made. Thread closed.

oblig simpsons quote:

[trs9000]

overheard in springfield, ??:

excellent!

Next thing you know...

[SeaDour]

...he'll be telling us we have to collect eight "spirits" to "heal" Gaia, while the military will be advocating the use of a giant orbital laser. Pffffftt.

Godwin's law

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, the OP compared global warming to nazis, thus invoking Godwin's law [catb.org] before the discussion even started.
I have no choice but to declare this thread officially closed...

Re:wow

[SlashdotLemming]

not much else to say than that. seems like a pretty bleak future is ahead if we cant figure this out.... maybe even if we can

This is Slashdot, where all futures are bleak. Kill yourself now (but give me your boxes first)

Re:What about solar towers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Until Solar Towers are proven effective - i.e. have been online, operational, and generating power for at least 2 years, maybe 5, nobody is going to invest in them.

The only renewable energy in the universe is the status quo.

Re:This just for saving humans...

[shadowcabbit]

I, for one, welcome our non-self-preservationist overlords.

Re:Global Warming - Dead Reefs

[James Lewis]

Well, it isn't all bad [nature.com]. Some reefs are going to die, while others expand. And perhaps a few of the reefs will even evolve to live in warmer waters. If worst comes to worst we could always genetically engineer them to do that ;)

Re:Been there, done that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Question: Do they build their nuclear generating stations as well as they do their airport terminals?

The future

[goatan]

of alternative fuels is cow brains [theindependent.com] i kid you not there are some people looking at this seriously.

Re:Wow

[MethylPhreak]

Well if you're going to choose that path then why not just drop pockets of nuclear waste in the middle of a "precious wilderness" such as New York City?

Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot, you believe you're somehow more special than the rest of the life on this planet.

Re:Wow

[iwein]

jeeeeeez! didn't he see Godzilla?

Re:What about using the most obvious Nuclear Energ

[kabocox]

[begin standard green rant]
Yes, but the Sun is a non sustainable system. The Sun is losing energy! We must not waste the Sun's Energy. We will lose our source of Solar power in a few million years. We must develop a better solution. We need an energy source that will last billions of years and is completly sustainable and produces zero waste products. The sun just isn't a viable solution it will burn out in a few million years, then where will we be?
[end standard green rant]

Re:Great

[An Onerous Coward]

Getting energy from the sun? Idiot. The cost of launching all those oil rigs into space, sending them to the sun, drilling it, then shipping the oil back (The Sun is massive, so launching from its surface requires a great deal of energy), is simply prohibitively expensive.

Plus, the working conditions on the Sun are extremely hazardous. It would take billions of dollars in research just to come up with fireproof socks.

Energy from the sun. Sheesh. Who lets these people post?

Re:You don't have to give up SUV's

[Pinky]

The everyday version gets 60mpg does it? What car might this be? Some sort of miracle car? or is it an insight? You know on Mars we get 100mpg daily. Then again the gravity is only a fourth of what it is on earth so we just pick up our cars and throw them.

Top ten mpg cars:
http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/list/top10/47000/ar ticle.html [edmunds.com]

Re:Nuclear power isn't all that bad

[Anonymous Coward]

Those yahoos who keep prodding the perimeter at Indian Point with their boats to show 'how bad security is here' likely don't realize that they are being continuously tracked/monitored/sighted in. It would be an extremely difficult task to sneak something past a)the bomb sniffer b)the metal detector and c)the nice men with the semiautomatic weapons.

So why don't those nice men do something with the semiautomatic weapons to stop those yahoos prodding the perimeter? Demonstrate that security is as tight as you claim, *and* get rid of some idiots at the same time. What's not to like?

Re:You don't have to give up SUV's

[Colazar]

Or, more likely, thinks he can, and ends up in a ditch.

Re:Damn Straight

[raygundan]

I'll admit, it does have a certain mad-scientist appeal to it... natural selection should harden up the animals to tolerate it over time, and eventually they will become super-animals, capable of defending their territory from encroaching human development by means of their laser eyebeams, psychic attacks, and tree-generated forcefields. Perhaps a few will even develop organs that allow them to use the spent nuclear fuel to power their own internal nuclear reactions.

Or possibly they'll just have too many heads and legs, and flop around horribly, inspiring tug-the-heartstrings documentaries.