Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming

by Paul Hawken

James Hansen, the NASA scientist who put the United States on notice in his 1988 congressional testimony on climate change, takes another perspective. He authored an open letter with three other climate leaders stating, “Renewables like wind and solar and biomass will certainly play roles in a future energy economy, but those energy sources cannot expand fast enough to deliver cheap and reliable power at the scale the global economy requires. While it may be theoretically possible to stabilize the climate without nuclear power, in the real world there is no credible path to climate stabilization that does not include a substantial role for nuclear power.” Their proposal would require building 115 reactors per year for thirty-five years.