Every now and again I find something online that just makes me furious. In this case, it's the morons over at Nukefree.org (link not provided so as to not give these idiots any more traffic.)
Before I show this video that's pissing me off, a couple of facts.
1) Coal fire plants kill an estimated 30,000 Americans each year.
2) Due to a decrease in the availability of easily-mined coal, riskier mining practices are being used. Just watch the news. Did you see all of these people dying in mining accidents 15 years ago?
3) Experts believe that every year, there are thousands who die from coal accidents in China alone and the WHO estimates that approximately 3 million people globally are killed by complications linked to fossil fuel emissions.
4) At the most liberal estimates, total mortalities that can be attributed to nuclear power over the last fifty years are somewhere around 6,750 to 38,000. Even with the highest estimate, that turns out to be about 760 people a year. If you make that the last 25 years, it comes out to 1,520 people a year. And that includes Chernobyl.
5) While maintaining this low level of mortalities, nuclear power, until last year, provided more power in the US than natural gas.
6) And perhaps most interestingly, nuclear power over the course of the fuel life cycle in a reactor, produces approximately as much carbon emissions as does the wind.
And seriously? We're worried about nuclear energy? Apparently some musicians are: