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,

0:00:25.703,0:00:29.040
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.

0:00:41.470,0:00:43.541
After college, I moved to California,

0:00:43.541,0:00:46.410
and I started working[br]on a number of environmental campaigns.

0:00:46.410,0:00:50.466
I got involved in helping to save[br]the state's last ancient redwood forest

0:00:50.466,0:00:53.905
and blocking a proposed[br]radioactive waste repository

0:00:53.905,0:00:55.538
set for the desert.

0:00:55.538,0:00:56.890
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

0:01:00.410,0:01:02.278
to solving climate change.

0:01:02.278,0:01:05.585
I was worried that global warming[br]would end up destroying

0:01:05.585,0:01:09.797
many of the natural environments[br]that people had worked so hard to protect.

0:01:10.170,0:01:13.180
I thought the technical solutions[br]were pretty straightforward -

0:01:13.180,0:01:16.403
solar panels on every roof,[br]electric car in the driveway -

0:01:16.403,0:01:18.820
that the main obstacles were political.

0:01:18.820,0:01:21.300
And so I helped to organize a coalition

0:01:21.300,0:01:25.269
of the country's biggest labor unions[br]and biggest environmental groups.

0:01:25.269,0:01:30.090
Our proposal was for a 300-billion-dollar[br]investment in renewables.

0:01:30.090,0:01:33.034
And the idea was not only[br]would we prevent climate change,

0:01:33.034,0:01:35.795
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.

0:02:18.050,0:02:22.990
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.

0:02:34.830,0:02:38.617
One of the big challenges, of course,[br]is the intermittency of solar and wind.

0:02:38.617,0:02:42.080
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 dams[br]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 uphill,[br]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,

0:03:09.221,0:03:12.155
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;

0:03:40.630,0:03:43.691
it's just you have to have[br]a very particular kind of formation

0:03:43.691,0:03:44.939
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.

0:03:49.019,0:03:52.141
Other challenges are just[br]that there's other uses for water,

0:03:52.141,0:03:53.579
like irrigation,

0:03:53.579,0:03:56.083
and maybe the most significant problem

0:03:56.083,0:04:00.643
is just that in California[br]the water in our rivers and reservoirs

0:04:00.643,0:04:03.447
is growing increasingly[br]scarce and unreliable

0:04:03.447,0:04:05.170
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.

0:04:25.649,0:04:30.451
And it turns out that[br]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 jays and robins,

0:04:40.750,0:04:44.700
birds that are not endangered[br]and not at risk of going extinct.

0:04:45.040,0:04:48.112
What do kill eagles and other big birds,

0:04:48.112,0:04:51.185
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, they're one[br]of the most significant threats

0:04:57.485,0:04:59.694
to those big bird species that we have.

0:04:59.694,0:05:03.740
We just haven't been introducing[br]the airspace with many other objects

0:05:03.740,0:05:07.159
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,

0:05:24.370,0:05:27.351
they had to clear[br]the whole area of desert tortoises,

0:05:27.351,0:05:31.660
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.

0:05:37.490,0:05:42.083
And the current estimates are that[br]about 6,000 birds are killed every year,

0:05:42.083,0:05:44.465
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

0:05:48.620,0:05:52.150
that there was really no amount[br]of technological innovation

0:05:52.150,0:05:55.420
that was going to make[br]the sun shine more regularly

0:05:55.420,0:05:57.860
or wind blow more reliably;

0:05:57.860,0:06:00.760
in fact, you could make[br]solar panels cheaper,

0:06:00.760,0:06:02.680
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,

0:06:09.434,0:06:12.820
you just have to cover[br]a very large land mass with them.

0:06:13.112,0:06:18.340
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.

0:06:19.560,0:06:22.350
Well, dealing with[br]all of this unreliability

0:06:22.350,0:06:23.990
and the big environmental impacts

0:06:23.990,0:06:26.560
obviously comes at a [br]pretty high economic cost.

0:06:26.780,0:06:27.970
We've been hearing a lot

0:06:27.970,0:06:31.970
about how solar panels and wind turbines[br]have come down in cost in recent years,

0:06:31.970,0:06:35.130
but that cost has been [br]significantly outweighed

0:06:35.130,0:06:39.807
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 happened in California.

0:06:42.700,0:06:45.581
At the period in which solar panels[br]have come down in price

0:06:45.581,0:06:47.760
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[br]than the rest of the country.

0:06:52.649,0:06:54.169
And it's not unique to us.

0:06:54.169,0:06:56.640
You can see the same phenomenon[br]happened in Germany,

0:06:56.640,0:06:58.370
which is really the world's leader

0:06:58.370,0:07:00.730
in solar, wind and other[br]renewable technologies.

0:07:01.030,0:07:05.562
Their prices increased 50 percent[br]during their big renewable-energy push.

0:07:05.570,0:07:08.740
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.

0:07:13.400,0:07:15.265
But consider the case of France.

0:07:15.630,0:07:18.720
France actually gets[br]twice as much of its electricity

0:07:18.720,0:07:22.214
from clean zero-emission sources[br]than does Germany,

0:07:22.439,0:07:27.030
and yet 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.

0:07:30.960,0:07:36.072
France gets most of its electricity[br]from nuclear power, about 75% in total.

0:07:36.072,0:07:38.760
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
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,

0:07:59.370,0:08:02.659
we got about half as much electricity[br]from solar and wind

0:08:02.659,0:08:04.416
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.

0:08:12.000,0:08:17.037
Had Germany spent 580 billion dollars[br]on nuclear 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?[br]And 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.

0:08:38.350,0:08:40.060
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,

0:08:43.240,0:08:45.793
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.

0:09:18.041,0:09:20.120
Now, what about environmental impact?

0:09:20.120,0:09:22.128
I think a really easy way[br]to think about it

0:09:22.128,0:09:25.510
is 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.

0:09:27.630,0:09:31.976
About the same amount[br]of uranium as this Rubik's Cube

0:09:32.160,0:09:35.669
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[br]a significant 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

0:09:53.840,0:09:55.505
as it does from nuclear.

0:09:55.505,0:09:59.110
You would need 17[br]more solar farms like Ivanpah

0:09:59.110,0:10:02.120
in order to generate[br]the same output as Diablo Canyon,

0:10:02.140,0:10:04.901
and of course,[br]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.

0:10:09.550,0:10:11.651
This has been studied[br]pretty closely as well,

0:10:11.651,0:10:12.781
and it just turns out[br]

0:10:12.781,0:10:17.530
that solar panels require 17 times[br]more materials than nuclear plants do,

0:10:17.550,0:10:20.694
in the form of cement,[br]glass, concrete, steel -

0:10:20.760,0:10:23.972
and that includes all the fuel[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,

0:10:28.250,0:10:31.247
is just not a lot of waste from nuclear.

0:10:31.260,0:10:35.197
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,

0:10:46.050,0:10:49.267
either as pollution or as material waste.

0:10:49.621,0:10:51.961
We tend to think of solar panels as clean,

0:10:52.039,0:10:54.462
but the truth is that there is no plan

0:10:54.462,0:10:58.330
to deal with solar panels[br]at the end of their 20 or 25-year life.

0:10:58.543,0:11:01.837
A lot of experts are actually[br]very concerned that solar panels

0:11:01.991,0:11:05.521
are just going to be shipped[br]to poor countries in Africa or Asia,

0:11:05.627,0:11:07.976
with the rest of our[br]electronic-waste stream,

0:11:08.086,0:11:09.532
to be disassembled,

0:11:09.660,0:11:14.040
often exposing people[br]to really high level of toxic elements,

0:11:14.040,0:11:16.560
including lead, cadmium and chromium,

0:11:16.560,0:11:21.709
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

0:11:23.810,0:11:27.444
that nuclear is a really powerful[br]strong energy source

0:11:27.626,0:11:31.180
and that sunlight is really dilute[br]and diffuse and weak,

0:11:31.297,0:11:34.760
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

0:11:39.460,0:11:43.427
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

0:11:46.600,0:11:51.549
where California's deserts have been[br]entirely paved with solar farms.

0:11:52.420,0:11:55.511
All of which, I think, raises[br]a really uncomfortable question:

0:11:55.880,0:12:00.857
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[br]that 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.

0:12:16.589,0:12:19.300
This is a phenomenon[br]that's been going on for a long time.

0:12:19.300,0:12:22.004
Poor countries around the world[br]are in the process still

0:12:22.004,0:12:24.605
of moving away from wood[br]and dung as primary energies.

0:12:24.605,0:12:27.760
And for the most part,[br]this is a positive thing.

0:12:28.310,0:12:31.240
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.

0:12:35.106,0:12:36.960
As you stop burning wood in your home,

0:12:36.960,0:12:40.274
you no longer need to breath[br]that toxic smoke.

0:12:40.387,0:12:43.660
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,

0:12:45.190,0:12:49.789
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
While it's been pretty popular to move[br]from dirtier to cleaner energy sources,

0:12:56.360,0:12:59.390
from energy-diffuse[br]to energy-dense sources,

0:12:59.390,0:13:03.440
nuclear is just really unpopular[br]for a bunch of historical reasons.

0:13:03.793,0:13:06.300
And as a consequence, in the past,

0:13:06.300,0:13:08.590
I and I think a lot of others[br]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."

0:13:14.750,0:13:17.630
The problem is that it just[br]turns out not to be true.

0:13:17.770,0:13:20.300
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,

0:13:27.269,0:13:31.662
it would also have to significantly reduce[br]how much electricity it gets from nuclear.

0:13:31.864,0:13:36.920
That's because in order to handle the huge[br]variability of solar and wind on the grid,

0:13:37.132,0:13:39.339
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.

0:13:48.219,0:13:50.929
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

0:13:59.900,0:14:02.057
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

0:14:16.409,0:14:19.200
would actually increase carbon emissions.

0:14:19.328,0:14:21.930
I think a better alternative[br]is just to tell the truth.

0:14:21.930,0:14:24.310
That's what a number[br]of scientists have been doing.

0:14:24.310,0:14:25.470
I mentioned earlier

0:14:25.470,0:14:29.180
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[br]is that a million bats, at a minimum,

0:14:32.270,0:14:34.197
are killed every year by wind.

0:14:34.220,0:14:35.471
The consequence has been

0:14:35.471,0:14:38.120
that bat scientists[br]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,

0:14:55.229,0:14:58.802
who were involved in clearing[br]that land, have been speaking out.

0:14:58.979,0:15:00.280
One of them wrote,

0:15:00.280,0:15:04.269
"Everybody knows that translocation[br]of desert tortoises doesn't work.

0:15:04.269,0:15:06.409
When you're walking[br]in front of a bulldozer,

0:15:06.409,0:15:09.350
crying and moving animals[br]and cacti out of the way,

0:15:09.350,0:15:12.049
it's hard to think[br]that 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 Hambacher Forest

0:15:38.020,0:15:40.120
in order to get to the coal underneath,

0:15:40.120,0:15:44.424
all in an effort to phase out nuclear[br]and expand solar and wind.

0:15:44.790,0:15:47.145
The good news is that I think

0:15:47.145,0:15:50.810
that people still care about nature enough[br]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

0:16:00.430,0:16:02.521
or keep it and expand it.

0:16:02.630,0:16:06.080
They started out 40%[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.

0:16:12.060,0:16:14.770
A similar phenomenon[br]just 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,[br]as they did last week,

0:16:34.560,0:16:38.646
that they're going to start to increase[br]their reliance on nuclear power

0:16:38.646,0:16:40.520
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.

0:17:01.550,0:17:05.416
But I think it's also understandable[br]that as the facts have come in,

0:17:05.416,0:17:09.520
many of us have started to question[br]our prior beliefs and change our minds.

0:17:09.975,0:17:12.053
For me the question now is,

0:17:12.551,0:17:16.449
Now that we know that renewables[br]can't save the planet,

0:17:16.459,0:17:18.943
are we going to keep[br]letting them destroy it?

0:17:19.272,0:17:20.640
Thank you very much.

0:17:20.776,0:17:22.496
(Applause)