This is an interesting find, but doesn’t really surprise me. Teller was one of the people responsible for the atom bomb and was a staunch supporter of nuclear power. His predictions were right on the money, claiming that around 2000 we could see the melting of the poles. My guess is that he told the audience that they should support a move to nuclear power and electric cars to fuel this future.
I attended a lecture by Teller at the University of Washington, probably around 1978 or 79. I was very much anti-nuclear, which I still am. I asked Teller a couple of questions after the talk, including how we were going to deal with nuclear waste and the issue of protecting the facilities from attack. He outlined that it would take the U.S. military to surround and protect the facilities and the transport of fuel. I questioned whether this was essentially asking for a military state and he said he had no problem with that. He assumed that issue of nuclear waste would be solved technically. I was skeptical of the enormous costs with cost overruns and possibility of meltdown of the core in the event of an accident, something that could (and later prove true in Fukushima), make downwind cities like New York, Chicago, Olympia and others into wastelands. I still am skeptical, and the emergence of advanced solar and wind shows we likely can solve it without nuclear power.
Somebody cut the cake – new documents reveal that American oil writ large was warned of global warming at its 100th birthday party.
Filed under: Climate Change, Puget Sound | Tagged: Puget Sound |
