Please find my other comments in Alternet Environment. I have
proven many times that nuclear power is the safest and the only
feasible replacement for coal. With all due respect, I dare you to
PROVE that I am wrong. A mere statement will not do. Wild
urban legend will not do. Quoting somebody who knows nothing
about it will not do. And you must read my other posts first and
attack my FACTS with FACTS. You must give references to
valid scientific reports and EXPERIMENTAL data.

I believe in Science. Nature isn't just the final authority on truth,
Nature is the Only authority. There are zero human authorities.
Scientists do not vote on what is the truth. There is only one vote
and Nature owns it. We find out what Nature's vote is by doing
Scientific [public and replicable] experiments. Scientific [public
and replicable] experiments are the only source of truth. [To be
public, it has to be visible to other people in the room. What goes
on inside one person's head isn't public unless it can be seen on an
X-ray or with another instrument.]
Science is a simple faith in Scientific experiments and a simple
absolute lack of faith in everything else.

In the book: "Revolutionary Wealth" by Alvin & Heidi Toffler
2006 Chapter 19, FILTERING TRUTH, page 123 lists six
commonly used filters people use to find the "truth". They are:
1. Consensus
2. Consistency
3. Authority
4. Mystical revelation or religion [another name for several forms
of mental illness]
5. Durability
6. Science

As the Tofflers say: "Science is different from all the other truth-
test criteria. It is the only one that itself depends on rigorous
testing." They go on to say: "In the time of Galileo . . . the most
effective method of discovery was itself discovered." [Namely
Science.] The Tofflers also say that: "The invention of scientific
method was the gift to humanity of a new truth filter or test, a
powerful meta-tool for probing the unknown and—it turned out—
for spurring technological change and economic progress." All
of the difference in the way we live now compared to the way
people lived and died 500 years ago is due to Science. The other
truth filters have contributed misery, confusion, war, fanaticism,
persecution, terrorism, inquisitions, suicide bombings, false
imprisonments and other atrocities.

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Coal fired power plants produce 34% of our CO2.

http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op
=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=672
+ Astrobiology Portal
+ NASA Home
Rotten Sulfur Brew, The Great Dying?
Summary (Nov 14, 2003): The greatest catastrophe for life on
Earth occurred 250 million years ago, when nine of ten species
disappeared. But the cause of this great dying remains a mystery.
Penn State researchers have presented evidence that toxic carbon
dioxide build-up may have had less to do with the change of
fortunes than the acidic rains of hydrogen sulfide. Taking on the
the smell of rotten cabbage, the Earth's delicate balance turned
toxic.

Rotten Sulfur Brew, The Great Dying?
based on Penn State report
http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2003/
prPennStateKump.htm
While most scientists agree that a meteor strike killed the
dinosaurs, the cause of the largest mass extinction in Earth's
history, 251 million years ago, is still unknown, according to
geologists.This event is one of the most catastrophic in life's
history: the P/T extinction (or the Permian/Triassic boundary).
The painting titled "K/T Hit" by artist Donald E. Davis. This
impact occured 65 million years ago, ending the reign of the
dinosaurs, and is not to be confused with the P/T event 250
million years ago.
Image Credit: Don Davis
"During the end-Permian (P/T) extinction 95 percent of all species
on Earth became extinct, compared to only 75 percent during [the
better-known Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) extinction], when the
dinosaurs disappeared [65 million years ago]," says Dr. Lee R.
Kump, Penn State Professor of Geosciences. "The end-Permian is
puzzling. There is no convincing smoking gun, no compelling
evidence of an asteroid impact."
Scientists have suggested many possible causes for this "Great
Dying": severe volcanism, a nearby supernova, environmental
changes wrought by the formation of a super-continent, the
devastating impact of a large asteroid -- or some combination of
these. Whatever happened during this period left no form of life
undisturbed: No class or species was spared from devastation.
Trees, plants, lizards, proto-mammals, insects, fish, mollusks, and
microbes -- all were nearly wiped out. More than 9 in 10 marine
species and 7 in 10 land species vanished. Life on our planet
almost came to an end.
Researchers have shown that the deep oceans were anoxic,
lacking oxygen, in the late Permian and research shows that the
continental shelf areas in the end-Permian were also anoxic. One
explanation is that sea level rose so that the anoxic deep water was
covering the shelf. Another possibility is that the surface ocean
and deep ocean mixed, bringing anoxic waters to the surface.

Decomposition of organisms in the deep ocean could have caused
an overabundance of carbon dioxide, which is lethal to many
oceanic organisms and land-based animals.
"However, we find mass extinction on land to be an unlikely
consequence of carbon dioxide levels of only seven times the
preindustrial level," Kump told attendees at the annual meeting of
the Geological Society of America in Seattle. "Plants, in general,
love carbon dioxide, so it is difficult to think of carbon dioxide as
a good kill mechanism."
On the other hand, hydrogen sulfide gas, produced in the oceans
through sulfate decomposition by sulfur bacteria, can easily kill
both terrestrial and oceanic plants and animals.

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Odds of Dying from X according to the 2003 National Safety council

1 heart disease 1 in 5
2 cancer 1 in 7
3 stroke 1 in 24
4 motor vehicle accident 1 in 84
5 suicide 1 in 119
6 falling 1 in 218
7 firearm assault 1 in 314
8 pedestrian accident 1 in 626
9 drowning 1 in 1008
10 motorcycle accident 1 in 1020
11 fire or smoke 1 in 1113
12 bicycle accident 1 in 4919
13 air/space accident 1 in 5051
14 accidental firearm 1 in 5134
15 accidental electrocution 1 in 9969
16 alcohol poisoning 1 in 10048
17 hot weather 1 in 13729
18 hornet, wasp or bee sting 1 in 56789
19 legal execution 1 in 62468
20 lightning 1 in 79746
21 earthquake 1 in 117127
22 flood 1 in 144156
23 fireworks 1 in 340733

Causes that are missing from the above:
nuclear power plant accident
medical mistake
meteor impact
cold weather
starvation
dehydration
smallpox
war
terrorist strike
boredom

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Coal-fired power plants WOULD be safe if each and every one was equipped with the best machinery to collect the carbon and stop it from swirling up into the air as smoke and fumes; but as long as they are privately owned, profit will continue to be the motive and cost-cutting the practice. Yes, it's actually true, the technology already exists to cut coal-fired emmissions and save the planet, but the corporate executives refuse to install them because it would cut their profits. So, of course, they DENY there is any problem! "The weather is always changing, no big deal" says the corporate PR man as he hides inside his millionaire lifestyle!

Nuclear power also SHOULD be safe, except that the corporate executives who manage them are always looking for ways to cut costs, which lowers safety standards, making accidents inevitable, and of course, they DENY there is any problem!

And how much better is a crooked bureaucrat who pockets the difference between the cost of operation and timely maintainance with and without proper pollution and safety equipment? Not much !

Thus, human greed and carelessness, public laziness and cowardice are busy destroying the Earth for fun and profit - even now as madmen Bush & Cheney prepare the way for World War Three and what they presume will be their "New American Century"! The corrupted Congress does not even have the courage to stop them from plunging the World into a nuclear holocaust, so what will they do about man-made climate change? Less than nothing !

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Let's not get all hung up on end-of-pipe solutions. You guys promoting nukes and clean coal technologies as the panacea sound like those diet pill commercials on TV that say all you have to do is take a pill and then EAT WHATEVER YOU WANT!

We all know that those pills do not deliver, just like we know that if we don't put controls on the human population, it will not matter how many scubbers are on the coal plants or nukes turning out "clean" energy. The issue isn't what we know, it is what we will do with that knowledge.

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