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; 0:05:13.550,0:05:16.220 you have to clear[br]the whole area of wildlife. 0:05:16.560,0:05:21.927 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. 0:06:13.210,0:06:18.340 In other words, all of the major problems[br]with renewables aren't technical, 0:06:18.340,0:06:19.560 they're natural. 0:06:19.560,0:06:22.230 Well, dealing with[br]all of this unreliability 0:06:22.230,0:06:23.990 and the big environmental impacts 0:06:23.990,0:06:26.560 obviously comes at a [br]pretty high economic cost. 0:06:26.780,0:06:29.830 We've been hearing a lot about how[br]solar panels and wind turbines 0:06:29.830,0:06:31.970 have come down in cost in recent years, 0:06:31.970,0:06:35.130 but that cost has been [br]significantly outweighed 0:06:35.130,0:06:39.670 by just the challenges of integrating all[br]of that unreliable power onto the grid. 0:06:39.820,0:06:42.620 Just take, for instance, [br]what's happening in California. 0:06:42.700,0:06:45.490 At the period in which solar panels[br]have come down in price 0:06:45.650,0:06:47.760 very significantly, same with wind, 0:06:47.760,0:06:49.720 we've seen our electricity prices go up 0:06:49.720,0:06:52.649 five times more than[br]the rest of the country. 0:06:52.649,0:06:54.169 And it's not unique to us. 0:06:54.169,0:06:56.530 You can see the same phenomenon[br]happen in Germany, 0:06:56.630,0:06:59.120 which is really the world's[br]leader in solar, wind, 0:06:59.120,0:07:00.730 and other renewable technologies. 0:07:01.030,0:07:05.410 Their prices increased 50 percent[br]during their big renewable energy push. 0:07:05.410,0:07:08.740 Now you might think, well,[br]dealing with climate change 0:07:08.740,0:07:11.470 is just going to require[br]that we all pay more for energy. 0:07:11.650,0:07:13.350 That's what I used to think. 0:07:13.450,0:07:15.430 But consider the case of France. 0:07:15.630,0:07:18.720 France actually gets[br]twice as much of its electricity 0:07:18.720,0:07:23.039 from clean zero emission sources[br]than does Germany, and yet, 0:07:23.130,0:07:27.030 France pays almost half[br]as much for its electricity. 0:07:27.360,0:07:28.820 How can that be? 0:07:28.820,0:07:30.960 You might have already[br]anticipated the answer. 0:07:30.960,0:07:36.090 France gets most of its electricity[br]from nuclear power, about 75% in total. 0:07:36.190,0:07:38.760 And nuclear just ends up[br]being a lot more reliable, 0:07:38.760,0:07:41.810 generating power 24 hours a day,[br]seven days a week, 0:07:41.810,0:07:44.050 for about 90% of the year. 0:07:44.360,0:07:47.320 We see this phenomenon[br]show up at a global level. 0:07:47.330,0:07:49.710 So, for example, there's been[br]a natural experiment 0:07:49.710,0:07:51.170 over the last 40 years. 0:07:51.170,0:07:52.270 Even more than that, 0:07:52.270,0:07:55.719 or in terms of the deployment of nuclear[br]and the deployment of solar, 0:07:56.109,0:07:59.370 you can see that[br]at a little bit higher cost, 0:07:59.370,0:08:01.329 we got about half as much electricity 0:08:01.329,0:08:04.169 from solar and wind[br]than we did from nuclear. 0:08:05.209,0:08:08.390 Well, what does all this mean[br]for going forward? 0:08:08.500,0:08:11.890 I think one of the most significant[br]findings to date is this one. 0:08:12.000,0:08:15.579 Had Germany spent five hundred[br]and eighty billion dollars on nuclear 0:08:15.579,0:08:17.110 instead of renewables, 0:08:17.110,0:08:20.579 it would already be getting[br]a hundred percent of its electricity 0:08:20.579,0:08:24.729 from clean energy sources,[br]and all of its transportation energy. 0:08:25.629,0:08:28.869 Now I think you might be wondering[br]and it's quite reasonable to ask: 0:08:28.869,0:08:32.199 Is nuclear power safe and[br]what do you do with the waste? 0:08:32.199,0:08:34.259 Well, those are very reasonable questions. 0:08:34.259,0:08:36.910 Turns out that there's been[br]scientific studies on this 0:08:36.910,0:08:38.270 going over 40 years. 0:08:38.410,0:08:40.060 This is just the most recent study 0:08:40.060,0:08:43.240 that was done by the prestigious[br]British Medical Journal, Lancet, 0:08:43.240,0:08:45.520 finds that nuclear power is the safest. 0:08:45.890,0:08:47.390 It's easy to understand why. 0:08:47.800,0:08:49.450 According to the WHO, 0:08:49.450,0:08:52.850 about 7 million people die[br]annually from air pollution. 0:08:52.920,0:08:54.650 And nuclear plants don't emit that. 0:08:54.760,0:08:57.710 As a result, the climate scientist,[br]James Hansen, looked at it. 0:08:57.710,0:09:00.410 He calculated that nuclear power[br]has already saved 0:09:00.410,0:09:02.460 almost two million lives to date. 0:09:03.030,0:09:06.510 It turns out that even wind energy[br]is more deadly than nuclear. 0:09:07.060,0:09:10.350 This is a photograph taken[br]of two maintenance workers 0:09:10.350,0:09:11.500 in the Netherlands, 0:09:11.500,0:09:15.160 shortly before one of them[br]fell to his death to avoid the fire, 0:09:15.160,0:09:17.540 and the other one was engulfed in flames. 0:09:17.890,0:09:20.120 Now, what about environmental impact? 0:09:20.120,0:09:22.260 I think a really easy way[br]to think about it is 0:09:22.260,0:09:25.510 that uranium fuel which is[br]what we used to power nuclear plants 0:09:25.510,0:09:27.300 is just really energy dense. 0:09:27.630,0:09:31.740 About the same amount[br]of uranium as this Rubiks's Cube 0:09:32.160,0:09:35.410 can power all of the energy[br]you need in your entire life. 0:09:36.660,0:09:37.950 As a consequence, 0:09:37.950,0:09:39.750 you just don't need that much land 0:09:39.750,0:09:42.480 in order to produce a significant[br]amount of electricity. 0:09:42.660,0:09:46.150 Here you can compare the solar farm[br]I just described, Ivanpah, 0:09:46.150,0:09:48.220 to California's last nuclear plant, 0:09:48.220,0:09:49.430 Diablo Canyon. 0:09:49.430,0:09:53.840 It takes 450 times more land[br]to generate the same amount of electricity 0:09:53.840,0:09:55.240 as it does from nuclear. 0:09:55.420,0:09:58.910 You would need 17 more[br]solar farms like Ivanpah 0:09:59.090,0:10:02.060 in order to generate the same[br]output as Diablo Canyon. 0:10:02.140,0:10:04.570 And of course it would then be unreliable. 0:10:05.560,0:10:09.090 Well, what about the mining and the waste[br]and the material throughput. 0:10:09.620,0:10:11.730 This has been studied[br]pretty closely as well. 0:10:11.730,0:10:14.880 And it just turns out that[br]solar panels require 17 times 0:10:14.880,0:10:17.420 more materials than nuclear plants do, 0:10:17.550,0:10:20.760 in the form of cement,[br]glass, concrete, steel, etc. 0:10:20.760,0:10:23.860 And that includes all the fuels[br]used for those nuclear plants. 0:10:24.160,0:10:28.250 The consequence is that what comes out[br]at the end since its material throughput 0:10:28.250,0:10:31.050 is just not a lot of waste from nuclear. 0:10:31.260,0:10:35.080 All of the waste from the Swiss[br]nuclear program fits into this room. 0:10:35.320,0:10:38.910 Nuclear waste is actually the only waste[br]from electricity production 0:10:38.920,0:10:41.560 that's safely contained and internalized. 0:10:41.560,0:10:43.420 Every other way of making electricity 0:10:43.420,0:10:46.050 emits that waste[br]into the natural environment 0:10:46.050,0:10:49.190 either as pollution or as material waste. 0:10:49.510,0:10:51.759 We tend to think of solar panels as clean 0:10:52.039,0:10:55.710 but the truth is that there is no plan[br]to deal with solar panels 0:10:55.710,0:10:58.330 at the end of their 20 or 25 year life. 0:10:58.390,0:11:01.680 A lot of experts are actually[br]very concerned that solar panels 0:11:01.930,0:11:05.420 are just going to be shipped[br]to poor countries in Africa or Asia 0:11:05.530,0:11:09.389 with the rest of our electronic[br]waste stream to be disassembled, 0:11:09.660,0:11:13.960 often exposing people[br]to really high level of toxic elements, 0:11:13.960,0:11:16.560 including lead, cadmium and chromium, 0:11:16.560,0:11:21.530 elements that because they're elements,[br]their toxicity never declines over time. 0:11:21.970,0:11:23.810 I think we have an intuitive sense 0:11:23.810,0:11:27.360 that nuclear is a really powerful[br]strong energy source, 0:11:27.570,0:11:31.180 and that sunlight is really dilute[br]and diffuse and weak, 0:11:31.180,0:11:34.760 which is why you have to spread[br]solar collectors or wind collectors 0:11:34.760,0:11:37.240 over such a large amount of land. 0:11:37.680,0:11:39.450 Maybe that's why nobody was surprised 0:11:39.460,0:11:43.260 when in the recent science-fiction[br]remake of Blade Runner,[br] 0:11:43.570,0:11:46.600 the film opens with a very[br]dark dystopian scene 0:11:46.600,0:11:51.220 where California's deserts have been[br]entirely paved with solar farms. 0:11:52.420,0:11:55.310 All of which, I think, raises[br]a really uncomfortable question: 0:11:55.880,0:12:00.610 In the effort to try to save the climate,[br]are we destroying the environment? 0:12:01.770,0:12:04.870 The interesting thing is that[br]over the last several hundred years, 0:12:04.870,0:12:07.250 human beings have actually[br]been trying to move away 0:12:07.250,0:12:09.460 from what you would consider[br]matter-dense fuels 0:12:09.460,0:12:11.400 towards energy-dense ones. 0:12:11.510,0:12:16.360 That means really from wood and dung[br]towards coal, oil, natural gas, uranium. 0:12:16.480,0:12:19.200 This is a phenomenon that's been[br]going on for a long time. 0:12:19.200,0:12:22.580 Poor countries around the world are in the[br]process still of moving away 0:12:22.580,0:12:24.700 from wood and dung[br]as their primary energies. 0:12:24.700,0:12:27.760 And for the most part,[br]this is a positive thing. 0:12:27.920,0:12:31.240 As you stop using wood[br]as your major source of fuel, 0:12:31.240,0:12:34.830 it allows the forests to grow back[br]and the wildlife to return. 0:12:34.920,0:12:36.960 As you stop burning wood in your home, 0:12:36.960,0:12:40.090 you no longer need to breath[br]that toxic smoke. 0:12:40.360,0:12:43.660 And as you go from coal[br]to natural gas and uranium 0:12:43.660,0:12:45.190 as your main sources of energy, 0:12:45.190,0:12:49.610 it holds out the possibility of basically[br]eliminating air pollution altogether. 0:12:50.250,0:12:52.270 There's just this problem with nuclear - 0:12:52.270,0:12:56.360 well, it's been pretty popular to move[br]from dirtier to cleaner energy sources, 0:12:56.360,0:12:59.390 and from energy-diffuse[br]to energy-dense sources - 0:12:59.390,0:13:03.240 nuclear is just really unpopular[br]for a bunch of historical reasons. 0:13:03.500,0:13:06.400 And as a consequence, in the past, 0:13:06.400,0:13:08.590 I think a lot of others have sort of said, 0:13:08.590,0:13:10.720 in order to deal with climate change, 0:13:10.720,0:13:14.660 we're just going to need all the different[br]kinds of clean energy that we have. 0:13:14.720,0:13:17.630 The problem is that it just[br]turns out not to be true. 0:13:17.770,0:13:20.050 You remember I discussed[br]France a little bit ago. 0:13:20.440,0:13:22.990 France gets most of its[br]electricity from nuclear. 0:13:23.160,0:13:26.949 If France were to try to significantly[br]scale up solar and wind, 0:13:26.949,0:13:31.550 it would also have to significantly reduce[br]how much electricity it gets from nuclear. 0:13:31.730,0:13:36.920 That's because in order to handle the huge[br]variability of solar and wind on the grid, 0:13:36.960,0:13:39.339 they would need to burn more natural gas. 0:13:39.449,0:13:40.450 Think of it this way, 0:13:40.450,0:13:43.510 it's just really hard to ramp[br]up and down a nuclear plant 0:13:43.679,0:13:46.770 whereas I think we're all pretty[br]familiar with turning natural gas 0:13:46.770,0:13:48.219 up and down on our stove. 0:13:48.219,0:13:50.730 A similar process works[br]in managing the grid. 0:13:51.100,0:13:52.870 Of course it goes without saying 0:13:52.870,0:13:55.970 that oil and gas companies[br]understand this pretty well, 0:13:55.970,0:13:59.900 which is why we've seen them invest[br]millions of dollars in recent years 0:13:59.900,0:14:01.780 in promoting solar and wind. 0:14:02.960,0:14:06.380 This just raises, I think,[br]another challenging question, 0:14:06.380,0:14:09.790 which is that in places[br]that are using a lot of nuclear - 0:14:09.790,0:14:13.140 half of their grids that are[br]mostly nuclear and hydro - 0:14:13.610,0:14:16.409 going towards solar and wind[br]and other renewables 0:14:16.409,0:14:19.080 would actually increase carbon emissions. 0:14:19.280,0:14:21.850 I think a better alternative[br]is just to tell the truth. 0:14:21.850,0:14:24.150 And that's what a number[br]of scientists have been doing. 0:14:24.150,0:14:25.470 I mentioned earlier 0:14:25.470,0:14:29.080 that hundreds of thousands of birds[br]are killed every year by wind turbines. 0:14:29.200,0:14:32.270 What I didn't mention is that[br]a million bats at a minimum 0:14:32.270,0:14:33.940 are killed every year by wind. 0:14:34.220,0:14:36.419 The consequence has been[br]that bat scientists 0:14:36.419,0:14:38.120 have been speaking out about this. 0:14:38.120,0:14:40.939 This particular bat species,[br]the hoary bat, 0:14:40.939,0:14:43.019 which is a migratory bat species, 0:14:43.019,0:14:45.679 is literally at risk[br]of going extinct right now 0:14:45.679,0:14:48.170 because of the significant[br]expansion of wind. 0:14:48.520,0:14:51.360 It's not just wind, it's also on solar. 0:14:51.360,0:14:55.229 The scientists who were involved[br]in creating the Ivanpah solar farm 0:14:55.229,0:14:58.639 and who were involved in clearing[br]that land have been speaking out.[br] 0:14:58.979,0:15:00.280 One of them wrote, 0:15:00.280,0:15:04.359 "Everybody knows that translocation[br]of desert tortoises doesn't work. 0:15:04.379,0:15:06.889 When you're walking[br]in front of a bulldozer, crying, 0:15:06.889,0:15:09.350 and moving animals[br]and cacti out of the way, 0:15:09.350,0:15:12.049 it's hard to think that[br]the project is a good idea." 0:15:12.289,0:15:16.840 And now we can see these phenomena[br]at work at an international level. 0:15:16.840,0:15:18.580 In my home state of California, 0:15:18.580,0:15:21.779 we've been stuffing a lot of natural gas[br]into the side of a mountain 0:15:21.779,0:15:24.410 in order to handle all that[br]intermittent solar and wind. 0:15:24.470,0:15:25.570 It's sprung a leak. 0:15:25.570,0:15:28.300 It was equivalent to putting[br]500,000 cars on the road. 0:15:28.300,0:15:29.620 And currently in Germany, 0:15:29.620,0:15:34.050 there's protesters trying to block[br]a new coal mining project 0:15:34.050,0:15:38.020 that would involve destroying [br]the ancient Han back forest 0:15:38.020,0:15:40.000 in order to get to the coal underneath, 0:15:40.200,0:15:44.190 all in an effort to phase out nuclear[br]and expand solar and wind. 0:15:44.790,0:15:49.120 The good news is that I think that[br]people still care about nature enough 0:15:49.120,0:15:50.810 for these facts to matter. 0:15:50.810,0:15:52.770 We saw last year in South Korea 0:15:52.770,0:15:55.570 a citizen's jury deliberated[br]for several months 0:15:55.570,0:15:57.290 weighing these different issues. 0:15:57.470,0:16:00.420 They had to decide whether they were[br]going to phase out nuclear 0:16:00.430,0:16:02.380 or keep it and expand it. 0:16:02.630,0:16:06.080 They started out 40 percent[br]in favor of expanding nuclear 0:16:06.080,0:16:08.620 but after several months[br]and considering these issues, 0:16:08.620,0:16:11.890 they ended up voting 60%[br]to expand nuclear. 0:16:11.900,0:16:14.770 A similar phenomena just[br]happened last week in Arizona. 0:16:14.890,0:16:16.700 The voters had a ballot initiative 0:16:16.700,0:16:19.640 to vote on whether or not[br]to continue with nuclear 0:16:19.640,0:16:23.500 or to phase it out and try to replace it[br]with natural gas and solar. 0:16:23.620,0:16:26.160 They ended up rejecting at 70 to 30. 0:16:26.270,0:16:27.860 And even here in Europe, 0:16:27.860,0:16:31.900 we saw the Netherlands is one of the first[br]countries in recent memory 0:16:31.900,0:16:34.560 to actually announce as they did last week 0:16:34.560,0:16:38.860 that they're going to start to increase[br]their reliance on nuclear power 0:16:38.920,0:16:40.520 in recognition that there's just no way 0:16:40.520,0:16:44.340 they could generate significant amounts[br]of energy enough from solar and wind 0:16:44.340,0:16:46.060 to meet their climate targets. 0:16:46.560,0:16:47.760 I think it's natural 0:16:47.760,0:16:50.870 that those of us that became[br]very concerned about climate change, 0:16:50.890,0:16:52.820 such a big environmental issue, 0:16:52.850,0:16:56.160 would gravitate towards[br]really romantic solutions 0:16:56.240,0:16:59.830 like harmonizing human civilization[br]with the natural world 0:16:59.830,0:17:01.550 using renewable energies. 0:17:01.550,0:17:05.390 But I think it's also understandable[br]that as the facts have come in, 0:17:05.449,0:17:09.520 many of us have started to question[br]our prior beliefs and change our minds. 0:17:09.840,0:17:12.200 For me the question now is 0:17:12.470,0:17:16.449 that we know that renewables[br]can't save the planet, 0:17:16.459,0:17:18.950 are we going to keep[br]keep letting them destroy it? 0:17:19.170,0:17:20.640 Thank you very much. 0:17:20.776,0:17:22.496 (Applause)