Related (another TEDx talk by the same person): Why renewables can’t save the planet
Main points:
- Nature sets a limit on how much you can do with wind turbines and solar panels (not to mention hydroelectric plants), as you do not have infinite land to build on.
- The risks stemming from the possibility of nuclear power disasters are generally overstated. Far fewer people (and I mean several orders of magnitude fewer) have died from nuclear catastrophes than from air pollution; and even wind-energy-related accidents have killed more people per unit of energy up to this point.
- While nuclear plants aren’t completely safe, renewable energy sources aren’t necessarily so either – starting from the hazards posed by wind turbines and continuing to the batteries needed to store highly fluctuating renewable energy.
- The more land you need, the more of a problem it is for the environment. Wind turbines in particular are killing hundreds of thousands of birds and millions of bats every year. Solar plants need so much space that wildlife has to be cleared out, killing desert tortoises and other native creatures.
- Similarly, while the waste from nuclear plants is really bad, the waste from used solar panels is pretty bad, too (lead and other heavy metals come to mind) and takes up more volume to boot.