A catástrofe de Chernobyl vinte anos depois

Abstract

If we wish to prevent greater climate catastrophe, it is imperative that we prevent ourselves from extracting the more than one third of the fossil fuels, oil, gas and coal that still remain buried underground. Surely, the energy market will never be able of such an effort of self-constraint. Markets exist only to manage scarce resources. It turns out that fossil fuels, far from being scarce, are strongly overabundant if we take account of the climate change threat. I insist: we have three times more fossil resources than we have the right to use – otherwise, the climate apocalypse will be our fate. The world nuclear lobby is aware of this and, both publicly and in secret, it strives to draw attention to the environmental threat because, as it sees it, therein lies the best chances for civil nuclear energy. But I ask, is this really the only choice left for us, between poisoning the Planet or some kind of technical dictatorship? So I would like to pose a background question: are the conditions required to make nuclear energy safe compatible with the ground rules of an open and fair democratic society? The management of the catastrophe at Chernobyl leads us do doubt this.