Pope says world must rethink reliance on nuclear power; denounces ‘epidemic’ of bullying

Dear Pope,

If you care about climate change and global warming then Nuclear energy is definitely the way to go. You don't have to build nuclear weapons but using it for energy which is in high demand and growing is a necessity.

After the Tsunami/Earthquake in Japan almost all nuclear facilities closed down for safety, can you guess what happened? Japan ended up importing more fossil fuel to make up for the energy need.

I suggest you focus on saving souls for Jesus and stop giving and spreading bad advice when it comes to using nuclear power.

And what advice have you given there ?

Progressives like the Pope talk a big game about the dangers of climate change, but so far all their energy proposals are unrealistic or non-existent.

They don't want coal, clean coal, nuclear, natural gas, etc.

Sorry, but you can't run a country and infrastructure on wind, solar, and hydro just yet. And if you give up on serious energy, China will be happy to take over and sell you energy.

Progressives like the Pope

The pope is progressive? The guy who is at the head of a thousands year old organisation that still burns pieces of paper, objects to abortion, prostitution, birth control, homosexuality etc? You mean the guy who is the head of one of the longest existing conservative organizations that humanity has ever seen?

Real progressive.

Basically your comment exposes the rhetoric of the right. You clearly didn't even consider what you were saying, because had you even put a moment's thought into it, you would realize just how ridiculous it is to call the head of the catholic church a progressive. They're about as progresive as.. well when you think of it, the Catholic church is basically the standard by which conservatism is judged.

He is progressive only about accepting mass immigration. Of course not in Vatican though.

AlexBecu

Dear Pope, 

If you care about climate change and global warming then Nuclear energy is definitely the way to go.

Tell that to the people of Fukushima and Chernobyl. I’m sure they will be very interesting to hear your reasoning.

Nuclear power never was, is not and never will be a cheap, safe or reliable source of electricity. Disregarding the cost of nuclear disasters, there is the ongoing cost of storing spent fuel and the immense cost of decommissioning old reactors. Yes, the world has issues with co2 production. However, the vast majority of this comes from the vehicles these greenie hypocrites drive to their protests to take photos on their mobile phones produced in factories that create huge amounts of co2 and are charged with electricity produced by burning fossil fuels. The harsh reality is, electricity generation by fossil fuels accounts for less than 25% of the co2 produced worldwide. Therefore, nuclear power is not the be all and end all of co2 production. Even at its peak in Japan, nuclear power only provided 30% of Japan’s electricity. There is not one person on this planet who is not responsible for the massive amounts of co2 that has been released into the atmosphere over the past 100 years. Perhaps the African bushman could be excused.

"The pope is progressive? The guy who is at the head of a thousands year old organisation that still burns pieces of paper, objects to abortion, prostitution, birth control, homosexuality etc? You mean the guy who is the head of one of the longest existing conservative organizations that humanity has ever seen?"

Faulty English here--and, worse, faulty thinking...What does "progressive" mean? Being pro-abortion, pro-prostitution, pro-birth-control, pro-homosexual? If "conservative" means upholding the immeasurable value of human life and the dignity of the human person, hurray for conservatism.

A multilateral, internationally monitored destruction of all nuclear weapons, yes.

The eradication of all nuclear power, no. This would lead to massive increase of fossil fuel use. What is needed is the replacement of the existing 1950/60’s tech plants and those derived from them that we have now which were primarily designed to produce weapons grade material, undoubtedly. The introduction of modern systems which are intrinsically safe and physically incapable of meltdown no matter how inept the operator and can also burn the existing “waste” and so solve that problem as well is long over due.

No doubt this left over from the agrarian/autocratic civilisations of the past and his archaic organisation would love to see us all reduced to a “simpler” way of life so they could reimpose their ecclesiastical dictatorship on an ignorant, and superstitious population, but it isn’t going to happen.

Nuclear power will save the world in my opinion.

As a Catholic layman, I am painfully aware that one cannot be more Catholic than the pope, but I cannot help feeling that the Holy Father might venture to say something other than what the trendy folk--especially in the media--want to hear.

Bullying? Well, uh, yes, let's oppose bullying. Bullying really isn't very nice...Let's also oppose typhoons, volcanic eruptions, nuclear accidents, reckless driving, and excessive consumption of chocolate.

Rumour has it that the head of the Church will also please progressive folk by questioning capital punishment in Japan. Uhuh...

NHK said the emperor spoke to the pope in Spanish. I wonder why the empress wasn't there to greet the pope.

Faulty English here--and, worse, faulty thinking...What does "progressive" mean? Being pro-abortion

Pro choice

pro-prostitution

Again, pro-choice

pro-birth-control

Again, pro-choice

pro-homosexual

Freedom to live as one is.

You have a weird way of phrasing these things.

If "conservative" means upholding the immeasurable value of human life and the dignity of the human person, hurray for conservatism.

But I uphold the immeasurable value of human life, the dignity of the human person, and I'm definitely not conservative, nor am I a proponent of the catholic church.

So no, conservatism does not mean the things you listed. Those are just values of decency that decent humans hold on both sides of the divide.

But I do agree with you that these things should be cheered.

And I still stand by my original comment that the it's pretty ridiculous to be calling the pope progressive. Which was the point I was making, and had nothing to do with the reply you posted.

In about 70 years of nuclear power it has only achieved about 12% of total world power generation.

And how much does nuclear power contribute to pollution? More or less than 12%?

“Pollution” as in emissions or meltdowns?

Thanks for giving it a thought!

The answer is that it's a lot less than 12%. It's not zero, but nuclear power is clean energy. The problem of course is that if/when it goes bad, it goes REALLY bad.

The question is whether there is a way for humanity to be able to have nuclear reactors and run them in a safe manner. So far, the answer is 'not really'. It would be nice if we could figure out a way to change that answer to 'yes'.

“Who am I to judge?” Hello, you’re the Pope!

Seems to me, someone disagrees with you. Didn't someone say "thou shalt not judge"?

Is the pope excluded from that? If yes, what about those below him, is it only the pope that is excluded from obligation to the 10 commandments, or does that extend down, and just how far?

I do understand that many people on this site think that the rules shouldn't apply to those with the most power, and your comment would make it seem that you feel that is true for the Catholic church as well.

I personally prefer it when leaders are expected to follow the same rules as the rest of us though. I actually prefer it when they are role models insofar as following the rules. Doing things like not judging, when one of the rules is to not judge.