{"id":258622,"date":"2023-05-22T12:44:39","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T10:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=258622"},"modified":"2023-05-22T12:44:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T10:44:42","slug":"the-case-for-nukes-the-pathway-to-freedom-prosperity-is-reliable-affordable-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=258622","title":{"rendered":"The Case for Nukes: The Pathway To Freedom & Prosperity Is Reliable & Affordable\u00a0Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From STOP THESE THINGS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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No country ever got rich relying on wind and solar power, but plenty of rich countries are driving themselves into penury by doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the heart of every prosperous nation is the ability to tap reliable and affordable energy sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the richest billion are intent on squandering their energy legacy on weather -dependent so-called \u2018renewables\u2019, countries like India and China are building nuclear and coal-fired power plants at a staggering rate. Almost as if their march out of poverty depends upon it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings us to The Case for Nukes: How We Can Beat Global Warming and Create a Free, Open, and Magnificent Future<\/em><\/a> (Polaris Books, 2023) by Robert Zubrin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zubrin is clearly a pragmatist who understands the critical role that reliable energy plays in civilised society and the part it must play in bringing peace and prosperity to all comers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chelsea Follett provides a helpful review of Zubrin\u2019s timely work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Energy Abundance Is Liberating Humanity From Grueling Labor<\/strong>
Reason
Chelsea Follett
14 April 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Refreshingly pragmatic and nonpartisan, The Case for Nukes: How We Can Beat Global Warming and Create a Free, Open, and Magnificent Future <\/em>(Polaris Books, 2023) by Robert Zubrin offers a sweeping history of energy technology advances. It also provides a taxonomy of the enemies of nuclear power, including Malthusians and \u201cdegrowth\u201d advocates who would, ironically, limit the world\u2019s only scalable clean energy technology in the name of protecting the environment. The book launches a compelling and detailed defense of one of humanity\u2019s most promising yet misunderstood sources of energy. Policy makers across the political spectrum would be wise to heed Zubrin\u2019s call to reform and liberalize what he calls the \u201cregulatory whipsawing and strangulation of the nuclear industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zubrin pulls no punches, refusing to play games of political tribalism (i.e., opining that climate change \u201chas become politicized to the point where opposing parties have chosen to either deny it or grossly exaggerate it\u201d). While he presents nuclear energy\u2019s potential to lower emissions as a huge positive, he also notes, \u201cThe existential threat facing humanity is not climate change. It is the ideologies of despair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, when people see the world as a zero-sum battle over scarce energy and limited resources, such desperation can curtail freedoms and even produce unthinkable atrocities. As Zubrin writes, \u201cIf the belief persists that there is only so much to go around, then the haves and the want-to-haves are going to have to duke it out, the only question being when.\u201d He frames producing ample energy as not only an economic but also a moral imperative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the book\u2019s main point may be to promote nuclear power as a solution to some of society\u2019s problems, Zubrin\u2019s most gripping insight lies not in the specifics of its case for nuclear energy but in its broader dual thesis about the relationship between energy abundance (regardless of the energy\u2019s source) and freedom. He writes that energy technology \u201cis the foundation for freedom.\u201d He posits both that free societies are better able to produce energy and that access to more energy liberates mankind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zubrin tells of how, as civilization has become increasingly energy-intensive, our employment of energy has liberated humanity\u2014particularly women\u2014from grinding labor. \u201cPowered mills had the same significance for women of the Twelfth Century as washing machines did for those of the Twentieth,\u201d Zubrin claims. He quotes the ancient Greek poet Antipater of Thessalonica, who praised the water wheel\u2019s reduction of women\u2019s work hours with these words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hold back your hand from the mills, you grinding girls. Even if the cockcrow heralds the dawn, sleep on. For Demeter [the goddess of harvest and agriculture] has imposed the labors of your hands on the [water] nymphs, who leaping down upon the topmost part of the wheel, rotate its axle; with encircling cogs, it turns the hollow weight of the Nisyrian millstones. If we learn to feast toil-free on the fruits of the earth, we taste again the golden age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The water wheel saving women from waking at sunrise for the mind-numbing task of grinding grain to make bread is just one more example of how technological advances throughout history have arguably benefited women even more than men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harnessing energy and mechanizing labor has unshackled countless individuals from exhausting toil\u2014a liberating process that is ongoing in many countries as more households gain access<\/a> to electricity and labor-saving devices such as laundry machines. Given how many tasks now delegated to electric machines traditionally fell to women, perhaps it is unsurprising that many prominent advocates of an energy-abundant future fueled by nuclear power are women, or as Zubrin alliteratively puts it, a \u201cfine friendly force of fierce feminine fission freedom fighters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, as Zubrin would likely agree, energy access alone does not create freedom, even if it may help to counter the scarcity mindset that is so often freedom\u2019s enemy. One need only look to the Gulf petrostates featuring both massive oil fields and authoritarian political systems to find proof that energy abundance is insufficient to spread liberalism or gender equality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia did not even issue driver\u2019s licenses to its female citizens until five years ago. It is clear that freedom leads to energy abundance. It is more doubtful that energy abundance necessarily leads to freedom broadly understood\u2014although it at least defuses scarcity-based rationales for limiting human liberty. (Sadly, authoritarians have invented many other justifications for restricting freedom.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While energy abundance and freedom may be somewhat mutually reinforcing, if humanity were to pick only one, the choice seems clear: institutions and policies of freedom. History shows that free people in lands devoid of natural resources can innovate their way to high living standards. (As Zubrin points out, \u201cIt is human ingenuity that turns natural raw materials into resources.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider Hong Kong\u2019s whirlwind<\/a> free market transformation from a barren island into a gleaming metropolis in the 1950s and the 1960s. Freedom is the wellspring of prosperity and innovation, and the energy needed to power modernity. As Zubrin notes, when it comes to environmental challenges, once again, \u201cFreedom is not the problem. Freedom is the solution. Prosperity is not the problem. Prosperity is the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zubrin also writes that \u201chuman progress must and will inevitably entail continued exponential growth of human power generation.\u201d Whether humanity generates that power with nuclear reactors or finds an even better solution, the relationship between many aspects of freedom and energy is worth pondering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zubrin\u2019s book shows the urgency of unleashing energy abundance. He argues convincingly that a future of bountiful energy could help preserve the liberty that scarcity often imperils. Embracing freedom is the surest way to power the future.
Reason<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nuclear offers pathway to freedom and prosperity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No country ever got rich relying on wind and solar power, but plenty of rich countries are driving themselves into penury by doing so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":258628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818507,691819121],"class_list":{"0":"post-258622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-nuclear-energy","9":"tag-wind-and-solar-power","11":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0reactor-energia-nuclear-plomo-liquido-202285153-1645531313_1.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-15hk","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":212993,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=212993","url_meta":{"origin":258622,"position":0},"title":"Renewables Rejected: World\u2019s Poorest Crave Reliable & Affordable Coal-Fired Power","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/11\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"While the wealthy G7 countries admonish the world\u2019s poor to use only renewables because of climate concerns, Europe and the US are going begging to Arab nations to expand oil production. 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