0:00:08.420,0:00:09.850 Thank you very much. 0:00:10.460,0:00:11.525 When I was a boy, 0:00:11.525,0:00:15.310 my parents would sometimes[br]take me camping in California. 0:00:15.430,0:00:19.080 We would camp in the beaches,[br]in the forests, in the deserts. 0:00:19.590,0:00:22.080 Some people think the deserts[br]are empty of life 0:00:22.080,0:00:25.390 but my parents taught me[br]to see the wildlife all around us: 0:00:25.439,0:00:29.040 the hawks, the eagles, the tortoises. 0:00:29.170,0:00:31.410 One time when we were setting up camp, 0:00:31.410,0:00:34.510 we found a baby scorpion[br]with its stinger out, 0:00:34.510,0:00:36.849 and I remember thinking how cool it was 0:00:36.849,0:00:40.240 that something could be[br]both so cute and also so dangerous. 0:00:41.650,0:00:44.600 After college, I moved to California[br]and I started working on 0:00:44.600,0:00:46.490 a number of environmental campaigns, 0:00:46.490,0:00:50.500 I got involved in helping to save[br]the state's last ancient redwood forests 0:00:50.500,0:00:55.590 and blocking a proposed radioactive[br]waste repository set for the desert. 0:00:55.590,0:00:56.890 Shortly after I turned 30, 0:00:56.890,0:01:00.410 I decided I wanted to dedicate[br]a significant amount of my life 0:01:00.410,0:01:02.010 to solving climate change. 0:01:02.190,0:01:05.589 I was worried that global warming[br]would end up destroying 0:01:05.660,0:01:07.345 many of the natural environments 0:01:07.345,0:01:09.730 that people had worked[br]so hard to protect. 0:01:10.170,0:01:13.180 I thought the technical solutions[br]were pretty straightforward; 0:01:13.180,0:01:16.060 solar panels on every roof,[br]electric car in the driveway, 0:01:16.060,0:01:18.820 that the main obstacles were political. 0:01:18.820,0:01:21.300 And so I helped to organize a coalition 0:01:21.300,0:01:25.470 of the country's biggest labor unions[br]and biggest environmental groups. 0:01:25.470,0:01:30.090 Our proposal was for a 300-billion-dollar[br]investment in renewables. 0:01:30.090,0:01:33.200 And the idea was not only[br]would we prevent climate change, 0:01:33.200,0:01:35.795 but we would also create[br]millions of new jobs 0:01:35.795,0:01:38.440 in a very fast-growing high-tech sector. 0:01:38.770,0:01:41.629 Our efforts really paid off in 2007, 0:01:41.629,0:01:45.500 when then-presidential candidate[br]Barack Obama embraced our vision. 0:01:45.500,0:01:51.319 And between 2009 and 2015,[br]the US invested 150 billion dollars 0:01:51.319,0:01:54.040 in renewables and other[br]kinds of clean tech. 0:01:54.810,0:01:57.960 but right away we started[br]to encounter some problems. 0:01:57.960,0:02:00.819 So first of all, the electricity[br]from solar rooftops 0:02:00.819,0:02:04.679 ends up costing about twice as much[br]as the electricity from solar farms. 0:02:04.929,0:02:06.719 And both solar farms and wind farms 0:02:06.719,0:02:09.369 require covering a pretty[br]significant amount of land 0:02:09.369,0:02:11.590 with solar panels and wind turbines 0:02:11.590,0:02:14.590 and also building[br]very big transmission lines 0:02:14.590,0:02:17.780 to bring all that electricity[br]from the countryside into the city. 0:02:18.100,0:02:22.990 Both of those things were often very[br]strongly resisted by local communities, 0:02:22.990,0:02:25.205 as well as by conservation biologists 0:02:25.205,0:02:30.120 who were concerned about the impacts[br]on wild bird species and other animals. 0:02:30.600,0:02:32.610 Now, there was a lot of other people 0:02:32.610,0:02:34.830 working on technical[br]solutions at the time. 0:02:34.830,0:02:36.600 One of the big challenges, of course, 0:02:36.600,0:02:38.780 is the intermittency of solar and wind. 0:02:38.780,0:02:42.080 They only generate electricity[br]about 10 to 30 percent of the time 0:02:42.080,0:02:43.560 during most of year. 0:02:43.560,0:02:45.775 But some of the solutions being proposed 0:02:45.775,0:02:50.289 were to convert hydroelectric[br]dams into gigantic batteries. 0:02:50.289,0:02:53.504 The idea was that when the sun[br]was shining and the wind was blowing, 0:02:53.504,0:02:56.480 you would pump the water[br]uphill, store it for later, 0:02:56.480,0:02:59.700 and then when you needed electricity,[br]run it over the turbines. 0:03:00.520,0:03:02.649 In terms of wildlife,[br]some of these problems 0:03:02.649,0:03:04.859 just didn't seem like[br]a significant concern. 0:03:04.859,0:03:08.980 So when I learned that house cats[br]kill billions of birds every year 0:03:09.010,0:03:12.155 it put into perspective the hundreds[br]of thousands of birds 0:03:12.155,0:03:14.230 that are killed by wind turbines. 0:03:14.630,0:03:16.500 It basically seemed to me at the time 0:03:16.500,0:03:20.450 that most, if not all, of the problems[br]of scaling up solar and wind 0:03:20.450,0:03:23.450 could be solved through more[br]technological innovation. 0:03:24.190,0:03:25.979 But as the years went by, 0:03:25.979,0:03:29.604 these problems persisted[br]and, in many cases, grew worse. 0:03:29.830,0:03:33.070 So California is a state that's really[br]committed to renewable energy, 0:03:33.330,0:03:36.594 but we still haven't converted[br]many of our hydroelectric dams 0:03:36.594,0:03:37.949 into big batteries. 0:03:38.189,0:03:40.630 Some of the problems are just Geographic; 0:03:40.630,0:03:43.540 it's just you have to have[br]a very particular kind of formation 0:03:43.710,0:03:44.939 to be able to do that, 0:03:44.939,0:03:46.280 and even in those cases, 0:03:46.280,0:03:49.019 it's quite expensive[br]to make those conversions. 0:03:49.019,0:03:52.389 Other challenges are just[br]that there're other uses for water 0:03:52.389,0:03:53.910 like irrigation, 0:03:53.910,0:03:58.419 and maybe the most significant[br]problem is just that in California, 0:03:58.419,0:04:00.814 the water in our rivers and reservoirs 0:04:00.814,0:04:03.210 is growing increasingly[br]scarce and unreliable 0:04:03.210,0:04:05.170 due to climate change. 0:04:05.170,0:04:09.610 In terms of this issue of reliability[br]as a consequence of it, 0:04:09.610,0:04:12.080 we've actually had to stop the electricity 0:04:12.080,0:04:14.130 coming from the solar[br]farms into the cities 0:04:14.130,0:04:16.470 because there's just been[br]too much of it at times. 0:04:16.470,0:04:20.289 Or we've been starting to pay[br]our neighboring states like Arizona 0:04:20.328,0:04:22.039 to take that solar electricity. 0:04:22.039,0:04:25.529 The alternative is to suffer[br]from blowouts of the grid. 0:04:25.649,0:04:27.760 And it turns out that 0:04:27.760,0:04:30.730 when it comes to birds and cats - 0:04:31.380,0:04:35.180 cats don't kill eagles; eagles kill cats. 0:04:35.180,0:04:40.750 What cats kill are the small common[br]sparrows and jay's and robins, 0:04:40.750,0:04:44.700 birds that are not endangered[br]and not at risk of going extinct. 0:04:45.040,0:04:51.185 What do kill eagles and other big birds[br]like this kite as well as owls and condors 0:04:51.185,0:04:53.890 and other threatened[br]and endangered species 0:04:53.890,0:04:54.990 are wind turbines, 0:04:54.990,0:04:57.485 in fact, one of the most[br]significant threats 0:04:57.485,0:04:59.900 to those big bird species that we have - 0:04:59.900,0:05:03.740 we just haven't been introducing[br]the airspace with many other objects 0:05:03.740,0:05:06.880 like we have wind turbines[br]over the last several years. 0:05:07.640,0:05:09.430 And in terms of solar, 0:05:09.430,0:05:13.550 you know building a solar farm is a lot[br]like building any other kind of farm; 0:05:13.550,0:05:16.090 you have to clear[br]the whole area of wildlife. 0:05:16.420,0:05:21.927 So this is a picture of one third of one[br]of the biggest solar farms in California 0:05:21.927,0:05:23.195 called Ivanpah. 0:05:23.195,0:05:24.370 In order to build this, 0:05:24.370,0:05:27.490 they had to clear[br]the whole area of desert tortoises, 0:05:27.560,0:05:31.660 literally pulling desert tortoises[br]and their babies out of burrows, 0:05:31.670,0:05:35.470 putting them on the back of pickup trucks,[br]and transporting them to captivity 0:05:35.470,0:05:37.490 where many of them ended up dying. 0:05:37.490,0:05:42.075 And the current estimates are that[br]about 6,000 birds are killed every year, 0:05:42.200,0:05:44.465 actually catching on fire[br]above the solar farm 0:05:44.465,0:05:46.150 and plunging to their deaths. 0:05:46.480,0:05:48.620 Over time it gradually struck me 0:05:48.620,0:05:52.090 that there was really no amount[br]of technological innovation 0:05:52.130,0:05:55.420 that was going to make[br]the sun shine more regularly 0:05:55.420,0:05:57.860 or wind blow more reliably. 0:05:57.860,0:06:00.870 In fact, you could make[br]solar panels cheaper, 0:06:00.870,0:06:02.680 and you could make[br]wind turbines bigger 0:06:02.680,0:06:06.080 but sunlight and wind[br]are just really dilute fuels. 0:06:06.080,0:06:09.080 And in order to produce[br]significant amounts of electricity, 0:06:09.100,0:06:12.820 you just have to cover[br]a very large land mass with them. 0:06:13.210,0:06:17.310 In other words, all of the major problems[br]with renewables aren't technical, 0:06:17.310,0:06:19.640 they're natural. 0:06:19.640,0:06:22.630 Well, dealing with[br]all of this unreliability 0:06:22.630,0:06:24.280 and the big environmental impacts 0:06:24.280,0:06:26.530 obviously comes at a [br]pretty high economic cost. 0:06:26.530,0:06:30.070 You know we've been hearing a lot[br]about how solar panels and wind turbines 0:06:30.070,0:06:32.440 have come down in cost in recent years, 0:06:32.440,0:06:34.840 but that cost has been [br]significantly outweighed 0:06:34.840,0:06:38.960 by just the challenges of integrating all[br]of that unreliable power onto the grid. 0:06:39.280,0:06:41.990 Just take, for instance, [br]what's happening in California. 0:06:41.990,0:06:45.380 At the period in which solar panels[br]have come down in price 0:06:45.650,0:06:48.130 very significantly, same with wind, 0:06:48.130,0:06:50.500 we've seen our electricity prices 0:06:50.500,0:06:52.449 go up five times more than[br]the rest of the country. 0:06:52.449,0:06:54.729 And it's not unique to us. 0:06:54.729,0:06:56.530 You can see the same phenomenon[br]happen in Germany, 0:06:56.530,0:06:58.360 which is really the world's[br]leader in solar, wind, 0:06:58.360,0:06:59.590 and other renewable technologies. 0:06:59.590,0:07:02.800 Their prices increased 50 percent[br]during their big renewable energy push. 0:07:04.630,0:07:06.960 Now you might think, well,[br]dealing with climate change 0:07:08.800,0:07:10.690 is just going to require[br]that we all pay more for energy. 0:07:10.690,0:07:12.910 That's what I used to think. 0:07:12.910,0:07:16.060 But consider the case of France. 0:07:16.060,0:07:18.250 France actually gets[br]twice as much of its electricity 0:07:18.250,0:07:20.349 from clean zero emission sources[br]than does Germany, and yet, 0:07:23.410,0:07:25.990 France pays almost half[br]as much for its electricity. 0:07:25.990,0:07:29.050 How can that be? 0:07:29.050,0:07:30.370 Well, you might have already[br]anticipated the answer. 0:07:30.370,0:07:32.050 France gets most of its electricity[br]from nuclear power, about 75% in total. 0:07:37.090,0:07:39.370 And nuclear just ends up[br]being a lot more reliable, 0:07:39.370,0:07:41.620 generating power 24 hours a day,[br]seven days a week, 0:07:41.620,0:07:45.160 for about 90% of the year. 0:07:45.160,0:07:47.620 We see this phenomenon[br]show up at a global level. 0:07:47.620,0:07:49.090 So, for example, there's been[br]a natural experiment 0:07:49.090,0:07:51.460 over the last 40 years. 0:07:51.460,0:07:52.960 Even more than that, 0:07:52.960,0:07:54.639 or in terms of the deployment of nuclear[br]and the deployment of solar, 0:07:58.419,0:08:00.460 you can see that[br]at a little bit higher cost, 0:08:00.460,0:08:02.169 we got about half as much electricity 0:08:02.169,0:08:06.639 from solar and wind[br]than we did from nuclear. 0:08:06.639,0:08:08.830 Well, what does all this mean[br]for going forward? 0:08:08.830,0:08:10.840 I think one of the most significant[br]findings to date is this one. 0:08:10.840,0:08:13.659 Had Germany spent five hundred[br]and eighty billion dollars on nuclear 0:08:13.659,0:08:15.280 instead of renewables, 0:08:17.470,0:08:19.509 it would already be getting[br]a hundred percent of its electricity 0:08:19.509,0:08:21.099 from clean energy sources,[br]and all of its transportation. 0:08:26.409,0:08:27.520 Now I think you might be wondering[br]and it's quite reasonable to ask: 0:08:30.009,0:08:32.469 Is nuclear power safe and[br]what do you do with the waste? 0:08:32.469,0:08:33.969 Well, those are very reasonable questions. 0:08:33.969,0:08:36.070 Turns out that there's been[br]scientific studies on this 0:08:36.070,0:08:38.770 going over 40 years. 0:08:38.770,0:08:40.240 This is just the most recent study 0:08:40.240,0:08:42.250 that was done by the prestigious[br]British Medical Journal, Lancet, 0:08:42.250,0:08:44.260 finds that nuclear power is the safest. 0:08:44.260,0:08:46.930 It's easy to understand why. 0:08:46.930,0:08:48.640 According to the World[br]Health Organization, 0:08:48.640,0:08:51.040 about 7 million people die[br]annually from air pollution. 0:08:53.500,0:08:55.570 And nuclear plants don't emit that. 0:08:55.570,0:08:57.430 As a result, the climate scientist,[br]James Hansen, looked at and he calculated 0:08:59.350,0:09:01.750 that nuclear power has already saved[br]almost two million lives to date. 0:09:01.750,0:09:04.210 It turns out that even wind energy[br]is deadlier than nuclear. 0:09:07.120,0:09:09.790 This is a photograph taken[br]of two maintenance workers 0:09:09.790,0:09:11.500 in the Netherlands, 0:09:11.500,0:09:13.630 shortly before one of them[br]fell to his death to avoid the fire, 0:09:15.640,0:09:17.260 and the other one was engulfed in flames. 0:09:17.260,0:09:20.440 Now what about environmental impact? 0:09:20.440,0:09:21.760 Well, I think a really easy way[br]to think about it is 0:09:21.760,0:09:24.070 that uranium fuel which is[br]what we used to power nuclear plants 0:09:24.070,0:09:25.930 is just really energy dense. 0:09:28.210,0:09:30.340 About the same amount[br]of uranium as this Rubiks's Cube 0:09:32.890,0:09:34.660 can power all of the energy[br]you need in your entire life. 0:09:35.440,0:09:38.680 As a consequence, 0:09:38.680,0:09:40.600 you just don't need that much land 0:09:40.600,0:09:42.880 in order to produce a significant[br]amount of electricity. 0:09:42.880,0:09:44.830 Here you can compare the solar farm[br]I just described, Ivanpah, 0:09:44.830,0:09:47.410 to California's last nuclear plant, 0:09:47.410,0:09:50.770 Diablo Canyon. 0:09:50.770,0:09:52.750 It takes 450 times more land[br]to generate the same amount of electricity 0:09:52.750,0:09:54.790 as it does from nuclear. 0:09:54.790,0:09:57.430 You would need 17 more solar farms 0:09:59.920,0:10:02.320 like Ivanpah in order to generate[br]the same output as Diablo Canyon. 0:10:02.320,0:10:05.800 And of course it would then be unreliable. 0:10:05.800,0:10:07.960 Well, what about the mining and the waste[br]and the material throughput. 0:10:10.120,0:10:11.920 Well, This has been studied[br]pretty closely as well. 0:10:11.920,0:10:13.510 And it just turns out 0:10:13.510,0:10:16.270 that solar panels require 17 times[br]more materials than nuclear plants do, 0:10:18.610,0:10:21.490 in the form of cement,[br]glass, concrete, steel, etc. 0:10:21.490,0:10:23.230 And that includes all the fuels[br]used for those nuclear plants. 0:10:23.230,0:10:25.480 The consequence is that what comes out[br]at the end since its material throughput 0:10:27.730,0:10:30.160 is just not a lot of waste from nuclear. 0:10:30.160,0:10:32.560 All of the waste from the Swiss[br]nuclear program fits into this room. 0:10:34.570,0:10:37.000 Nuclear waste is actually the only waste[br]from electricity production 0:10:38.950,0:10:41.230 that's safely contained and internalized. 0:10:41.230,0:10:43.210 Every other way of making electricity 0:10:43.210,0:10:45.490 emits that waste[br]into the natural environment 0:10:45.490,0:10:48.010 either as pollution or as material waste. 0:10:48.010,0:10:50.589 We tend to think of solar panels as clean 0:10:50.589,0:10:53.410 but the truth is that there is no plan[br]to deal with solar panels 0:10:55.270,0:10:57.790 at the end of their 20 or 25 year life. 0:10:57.790,0:11:00.220 A lot of experts are actually[br]very concerned that solar panels 0:11:00.220,0:11:02.440 are just going to be shipped[br]to poor countries in Africa or Asia 0:11:04.180,0:11:06.459 with the rest of our electronic[br]waste stream to be disassembled, 0:11:10.780,0:11:13.210 often exposing people[br]to really high level of toxic elements, 0:11:13.210,0:11:15.610 including lead, cadmium and chromium, 0:11:15.610,0:11:17.980 elements that because they're elements,[br]their toxicity never declines over time. 0:11:20.680,0:11:23.200 I think we have an intuitive sense 0:11:23.200,0:11:25.660 that nuclear is a really powerful[br]strong energy source, 0:11:25.660,0:11:28.360 and that sunlight is really dilute[br]and diffuse and weak, 0:11:31.150,0:11:33.430 which is why you have to spread[br]solar collectors or wind collectors 0:11:35.290,0:11:38.320 over such a large amount of land. 0:11:38.320,0:11:40.750 Maybe that's why nobody was surprised 0:11:40.750,0:11:43.150 when in the recent science-fiction[br]remake of Blade Runner,[br] 0:11:43.150,0:11:45.910 the film open a very dark dystopian scene 0:11:45.910,0:11:48.340 where California's deserts have been[br]entirely paved with solar farms. 0:11:52.480,0:11:53.860 All of which, I think, raises[br]a really uncomfortable question: 0:11:53.860,0:11:56.740 In the effort to try to save the climate,[br]are we destroying the environment? 0:11:59.020,0:12:02.290 Well, the interesting thing is that[br]over the last several hundred years, 0:12:05.710,0:12:07.030 human beings have actually[br]been trying to move away 0:12:07.030,0:12:08.860 from what you would consider[br]matter-dense fuels 0:12:08.860,0:12:11.710 towards energy dense ones. 0:12:11.710,0:12:14.140 That means really from wood and dung[br]towards coal, oil, natural gas, uranium. 0:12:16.990,0:12:18.310 This is a phenomenon that's been[br]going on for a long time. 0:12:18.310,0:12:20.230 Poor countries around the world[br]are in the process still 0:12:22.090,0:12:23.620 of moving away from wood and dung[br]as their primary energies. 0:12:23.620,0:12:26.500 And for the most part,[br]this is a positive thing. 0:12:26.500,0:12:29.980 As you stop using wood[br]as your major source of fuel, 0:12:32.050,0:12:34.510 it allows the forests to grow back[br]and the wildlife to return. 0:12:34.510,0:12:36.340 As you stop burning wood in your home, 0:12:36.340,0:12:38.410 you no longer need to breath[br]that toxic smoke. 0:12:40.990,0:12:43.750 And as you go from coal[br]to natural gas and uranium 0:12:43.750,0:12:45.790 as your main sources of energy, 0:12:45.790,0:12:48.130 it holds out the possibility of basically[br]eliminating air pollution altogether. 0:12:50.830,0:12:53.050 There's just this problem with nuclear - 0:12:53.050,0:12:55.240 well, it's been pretty popular to move[br]from dirtier to cleaner energy sources, 0:12:56.890,0:12:59.890 and from energy diffuse[br]to energy dense sources - 0:12:59.890,0:13:02.230 nuclear is just really unpopular[br]for a bunch of historical reasons. 0:13:02.230,0:13:04.780 And as a consequence, in the past, 0:13:04.780,0:13:07.450 I think a lot of others have sort of said, 0:13:07.450,0:13:09.520 in order to deal with climate change, 0:13:09.520,0:13:11.170 we're just going to need 0:13:11.170,0:13:12.850 all the different kinds[br]of clean energy that we have. 0:13:15.490,0:13:16.990 The problem is that it just[br]turns out not to be true. 0:13:16.990,0:13:19.600 You remember I discussed[br]France a little bit ago. 0:13:20.920,0:13:22.240 France gets most of its[br]electricity from nuclear. 0:13:22.240,0:13:24.430 If France were to try to significantly[br]scale up solar and wind, 0:13:27.339,0:13:29.170 it would also have to significantly reduce[br]how much electricity it gets from nuclear. 0:13:32.980,0:13:35.980 That's because in order to handle the huge[br]variability of solar and wind on the grid, 0:13:35.980,0:13:38.079 they would need to burn more natural gas. 0:13:38.079,0:13:40.120 Think of it this way, 0:13:40.120,0:13:42.250 it's just really hard to ramp[br]up and down a nuclear plant 0:13:44.139,0:13:45.790 whereas I think we're all pretty[br]familiar with turning natural gas 0:13:45.790,0:13:47.829 up and down on our stove. 0:13:47.829,0:13:50.350 A similar process works[br]in managing the grid. 0:13:50.350,0:13:52.930 Of course it goes without saying 0:13:52.930,0:13:55.240 that oil and gas companies[br]understand this pretty well, 0:13:55.240,0:13:57.310 which is why we've seen them invest[br]millions of dollars in recent years 0:13:59.350,0:14:03.250 in promoting solar and wind. 0:14:03.250,0:14:05.500 This just raises, I think,[br]another challenging question 0:14:05.500,0:14:07.990 which is that in places[br]that are using a lot of nuclear, 0:14:07.990,0:14:10.360 their grids that are mostly[br]nuclear and hydro, 0:14:14.170,0:14:15.639 and going towards solar and wind[br]and other renewables 0:14:15.639,0:14:17.620 would actually increase carbon emissions. 0:14:17.620,0:14:19.930 I think a better alternative[br]is just to tell the truth. 0:14:21.519,0:14:23.380 And that's what a number[br]of scientists have been doing. 0:14:23.380,0:14:25.620 I mentioned earlier 0:14:25.620,0:14:27.730 that hundreds of thousands of birds[br]are killed every year by wind turbines. 0:14:27.730,0:14:29.380 What I didn't mention is that[br]a million bats at a minimum 0:14:31.899,0:14:33.880 are killed every year by wind. 0:14:33.880,0:14:35.829 The consequence has been[br]that bat scientists 0:14:35.829,0:14:37.480 have been speaking out about this. 0:14:37.480,0:14:40.209 This particular bat species,[br]the hoary bat, 0:14:40.209,0:14:42.339 which is a migratory bat species, 0:14:42.339,0:14:44.649 is literally at risk[br]of going extinct right now 0:14:46.449,0:14:48.940 because of the significant[br]expansion of wind. 0:14:48.940,0:14:51.640 It's not just wind, it's also on solar. 0:14:51.640,0:14:53.529 The scientists who were involved[br]in creating the Ivanpah solar farm 0:14:53.529,0:14:55.959 and who were involved in clearing[br]that land have been speaking out.[br] 0:14:58.149,0:15:01.120 One of them wrote, 0:15:01.120,0:15:03.399 "Everybody knows that translocation[br]of desert tortoises doesn't work. 0:15:03.399,0:15:05.290 When you're walking[br]in front of a bulldozer, 0:15:07.089,0:15:09.160 crying, and moving animals[br]and cacti out of the way, 0:15:09.160,0:15:11.199 it's hard to think that[br]the project is a good idea." 0:15:11.199,0:15:13.480 And now we can see these phenomena[br]at work at an international level. 0:15:16.540,0:15:18.370 In my home state of California, 0:15:18.370,0:15:20.410 we've been stuffing a lot of natural gas[br]into the side of a mountain 0:15:22.329,0:15:23.860 in order to handle all that[br]intermittent solar and wind. 0:15:24.250,0:15:26.230 It's sprung a leak. 0:15:26.230,0:15:28.300 It was equivalent to putting[br]500,000 cars on the road. 0:15:28.300,0:15:30.640 And currently in Germany, 0:15:30.640,0:15:33.220 there's protesters trying to block[br]a new coal mining project 0:15:34.320,0:15:36.240 that would involve destroying [br]the ancient Han back forest 0:15:36.240,0:15:38.730 in order to get to the coal underneath, 0:15:38.730,0:15:41.100 all in an effort to phase out nuclear[br]and expand solar and wind. 0:15:43.440,0:15:46.380 The good news is that I think that[br]people still care about nature enough 0:15:48.510,0:15:50.310 for these facts to matter. 0:15:50.310,0:15:52.770 We saw last year in South Korea 0:15:52.770,0:15:55.110 a citizen's jury deliberated[br]for several months 0:15:55.110,0:15:56.880 weighing these different issues. 0:15:56.880,0:15:58.890 They had to decide whether they were[br]going to phase out nuclear 0:15:58.890,0:16:01.650 or keep it and expand it. 0:16:01.650,0:16:04.140 They started out 40 percent[br]in favor of expanding nuclear 0:16:06.540,0:16:08.040 but after several months[br]and considering these issues, 0:16:08.040,0:16:10.320 they ended up voting 60%[br]to expand nuclear. 0:16:10.320,0:16:13.020 A similar phenomena just[br]happened last week in Arizona. 0:16:15.120,0:16:17.100 The voters had a ballot initiative 0:16:17.100,0:16:19.200 to vote on whether or not[br]to continue with nuclear 0:16:19.200,0:16:21.150 or to phase it out and try to replace it[br]with natural gas and solar. 0:16:23.220,0:16:26.160 They ended up rejecting at 70 to 30. 0:16:26.160,0:16:28.500 And even here in Europe,[br]we saw the Netherlands 0:16:28.500,0:16:30.150 is the one of the first countries[br]in recent memory 0:16:32.700,0:16:34.740 to actually announce as they did last week 0:16:34.740,0:16:36.360 that they're going to start to increase[br]their reliance on nuclear power 0:16:36.360,0:16:37.890 in recognition that there's just no way 0:16:39.810,0:16:41.250 they could generate significant amounts[br]of energy enough from solar and wind 0:16:43.110,0:16:44.970 to meet their climate targets. 0:16:44.970,0:16:47.370 I think it's natural 0:16:47.370,0:16:49.560 that those of us that became[br]very concerned about climate change, 0:16:49.560,0:16:51.210 such a big environmental issue, 0:16:51.210,0:16:53.310 would gravitate towards[br]really romantic solutions 0:16:56.540,0:16:58.980 like harmonizing human civilization[br]with the natural world 0:16:58.980,0:17:01.140 using renewable energies. 0:17:01.140,0:17:03.090 But I think it's also understandable[br]that as the facts have come in, 0:17:05.849,0:17:07.650 many of us started to question[br]our prior beliefs and change our minds. 0:17:10.410,0:17:14.030 For me the question now is 0:17:14.030,0:17:16.859 that we know that renewables[br]can't save the planet, 0:17:16.859,0:17:18.660 are we going to keep[br]keep letting them destroy it. 0:17:18.660,0:17:25.510 Thank you very much.