Nearly every week, the press reminds us of the impending dangers of global warming. With each new reminder, another scientist publishes an intensely researched paper corroborating every scientist before them: “Find a solution to combat global warming or face dire consequences.” We’ve all heard about rising seas, melting ice caps, and, heaven forbid, polar bears going extinct. Despite the obvious warnings, President Donald Trump continues to declare global warming “fake news.” With the President disavowing global warming and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposing the radical Green New Deal, I’d like to take the time to address the simplest and fastest way to combat global warming. We must go nuclear if we want a chance in protecting Earth.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls for advanced proliferation of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar (with the exclusion of nuclear energy). That sounds amazing…but only in an idealistic world. The wind does not always blow or the sun shine. Imagine a car that runs only half the time. While wind and solar sound wonderful, they are incredibly unreliable. Can you guess what runs continuously? Yup, nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is one of the most reliable types of energy because the reactors must run continuously to remain efficient. This means nuclear energy would be extremely effective in powering the world 24/7.

Wind and solar also have skeletons hiding in the closet that you’re probably not aware of. Those massive, innocent-looking wind turbines are skilled serial killers. Their powerful blades slice through the air, slaughtering thousands of birds. Would you advocate for those wind turbines if you knew cute little song birds were at risk of obliteration from one of those swooping blades? Every wind turbine is a repeat of Bambi times a thousand. Solar panels are filled with chemicals only a chemist or engineer could appreciate. To effectively convert the sun’s rays into the power to charge your phone (and to support your mobile app addiction), corrosive acids and toxic compounds are necessary. If companies already create such dangerous chemicals, why not go all the way and produce nuclear fuel? What’s the worst that can happen…Chernobyl? (Which, by the way, killed far fewer people than feared.) It’s hypocritical of us to advocate for the production of solar panels while condemning nuclear power because one is perceivably more “dangerous” than the other. In fact, nuclear energy is far safer than solar energy. On average, nuclear energy is responsible for 90 deaths per trillion-kilowatt hour vs the 440 deaths per trillion-kilowatt hour caused by solar energy (Forbes). Therefore, we should get over our fears and embrace nuclear energy.

The media’s portrayal of anything nuclear has probably convinced you that nuclear energy is worse than Satan. James Bond movies often featured a villain with a nuclear bomb threatening the world. Even The Simpsons depicted uranium as a luminescent green material and nuclear plant employees as careless at best. However, these depictions are all wrong, criminally wrong.

Real uranium has a dull silver appearance, much like iron or aluminum. Uranium is a boring metal to look at, and not some funky Hollywood alien movie metal glowing neon green due to its deadly radiation. And the most atrocious portrayal by movies is the ability for a villain to hijack a nuclear power plant and convert the uranium into a bomb. The uranium used in nuclear power generation is totally different from the uranium used in atomic bonds. In fact, to convert the uranium from a power plant into weapons grade uranium, so advanced a processing plant would be required that few countries can do it themselves. There is no need to worry about ISIS or Al-Qaeda stealing from a nuclear plant. And even if a terrorist organization tried, nuclear plants maintain a large armed security force. Nuclear power plants are the Fort Knox of the energy sector.

 To effectively counteract global warming, nuclear power plants must replace coal and gas power plants (which should be compared to Satan). While coal and gas power plants spew thousands of metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, nuclear power plants do not. Nuclear power plants produce hardly, if any, carbon dioxide because the uranium decays into other metallic elements instead. Nuclear power plants are the best solution for fighting global warming because they essentially have a zero-carbon footprint. As you can see, nuclear energy is like the middle child of the renewable energy family. The mature wind turbines have been around for ages, the young solar panels are exciting and loved, but nuclear energy gets overlooked.

In order to combat global warming, we must first become convinced that it is a problem. *Cough* that’s you Donald. Once we get over this little hiccup and decide to save Earth, we must construct enough power plants to make all other energy sources obsolete. It will be expensive, but I’m sure we’d all be willing to pay a little extra in our taxes if it meant we didn’t live on a scorched Earth. After we have completed all of this, we can finally rejoice in the fact that we stopped global warming. Or don’t because you’re a sadist that wants to watch the world burn…literally. The choice is ours: go nuclear or let global warming take its toll.

Work Cited

Conca, James. “How Deadly Is Your Kilowatt? We Rank The Killer Energy Sources.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 28 Mar. 2017.