“Continuing to degrade our environment by using fossil fuels is just like the oppression of women in today’s society! The exploitation of the environment is the root cause of women’s oppression,” a debater yelled in the middle of his round.
Over the summer, I attended the Stanford National Forensic Institute. I had the opportunity to study and appreciate the basics of nuclear power. Progressing into a greener future where society is concerned with global warming, “our best energy option for the indefinite future is nuclear power” (Oliver). Nuclear power is not harmful for the environment, contrary to the negative connotation that is usually associated with the word “nuclear.” Meanwhile, it is common knowledge that fossil fuels are polluting …show more content…
It is common knowledge that usage of fossil fuels is the root cause of these problems because “the burning of coal, oil, and gas… produce major amounts of carbon dioxide or CO2. A single gallon of gasoline, when burned, [emits] 19 pounds of carbon dioxide” (National Wildlife Federation). Global warming is attributed to the prevalence of the greenhouse effect, which is when gases, such as carbon dioxide, in Earth’s atmosphere absorb the Sun’s light to warm the Earth. More gases in the atmosphere lead to more heat being absorbed, thus contributing to the heightened temperatures. Fossil fuels also pollute the Earth and cause deaths. Richard Rhodes, a journalist, and Denis Beller, a nuclear engineer, write, “pollutants from coal-burning cause about 15,000 premature deaths annually in the United States alone… coal-burning releases amounts of toxic waste too immense to contain safely” (32). Fossil fuels cause a large amount of deaths in the United States alone. If coal causes toxic waste and carbon dioxide to be emitted into the atmosphere, it is clear that society needs an alternative. This is where nuclear power comes in. Fred P. Bosselman, an environmental lawyer, found that, “ nuclear power plants produce no air pollutants when generating power” (40). Unlike dirty coal, nuclear power does not contribute to global warming and will not cause deaths. Instead, clean nuclear power plants have helped to …show more content…
Instead of damaging the environment, nuclear power plants are helping to prevent pollution. A recent 2013 study found:
Global nuclear power has prevented an average of 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths and 64 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions that would have resulted from fossil fuel burning... nuclear power could additionally prevent an average of 420,000−7.04 million deaths and 80−240 gigatons of CO2-eq emissions due to fossil fuels by midcentury… By contrast, we assess that large-scale expansion of unconstrained natural gas use would not mitigate the climate problem and would cause far more deaths than expansion of nuclear power. (Hansen and Kharecha
Over the summer, I attended the Stanford National Forensic Institute. I had the opportunity to study and appreciate the basics of nuclear power. Progressing into a greener future where society is concerned with global warming, “our best energy option for the indefinite future is nuclear power” (Oliver). Nuclear power is not harmful for the environment, contrary to the negative connotation that is usually associated with the word “nuclear.” Meanwhile, it is common knowledge that fossil fuels are polluting …show more content…
It is common knowledge that usage of fossil fuels is the root cause of these problems because “the burning of coal, oil, and gas… produce major amounts of carbon dioxide or CO2. A single gallon of gasoline, when burned, [emits] 19 pounds of carbon dioxide” (National Wildlife Federation). Global warming is attributed to the prevalence of the greenhouse effect, which is when gases, such as carbon dioxide, in Earth’s atmosphere absorb the Sun’s light to warm the Earth. More gases in the atmosphere lead to more heat being absorbed, thus contributing to the heightened temperatures. Fossil fuels also pollute the Earth and cause deaths. Richard Rhodes, a journalist, and Denis Beller, a nuclear engineer, write, “pollutants from coal-burning cause about 15,000 premature deaths annually in the United States alone… coal-burning releases amounts of toxic waste too immense to contain safely” (32). Fossil fuels cause a large amount of deaths in the United States alone. If coal causes toxic waste and carbon dioxide to be emitted into the atmosphere, it is clear that society needs an alternative. This is where nuclear power comes in. Fred P. Bosselman, an environmental lawyer, found that, “ nuclear power plants produce no air pollutants when generating power” (40). Unlike dirty coal, nuclear power does not contribute to global warming and will not cause deaths. Instead, clean nuclear power plants have helped to …show more content…
Instead of damaging the environment, nuclear power plants are helping to prevent pollution. A recent 2013 study found:
Global nuclear power has prevented an average of 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths and 64 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions that would have resulted from fossil fuel burning... nuclear power could additionally prevent an average of 420,000−7.04 million deaths and 80−240 gigatons of CO2-eq emissions due to fossil fuels by midcentury… By contrast, we assess that large-scale expansion of unconstrained natural gas use would not mitigate the climate problem and would cause far more deaths than expansion of nuclear power. (Hansen and Kharecha