Thread by @BNW_Ben

Short thread with a hope, probably in vain, of reaching climate-concerned anti-nuclear people who might be feeling a little introspective right now. #climatechange

In last 2 days I have:
- Seen growth in global coal in the BP stats.
- sat in Energy Mines and Money conference, hearing from Aussie coal executives and Chinese + Japanese coal investors.
- watched a massive new mine win approval to send coal to India.

So, maybe, a valid POV...

I’m not even sure how to parse this, but here goes.

The difference between the story so many of us have been telling ourselves about renewables taking over, and the actual bedrock truth of global energy?

This is a yawning, gaping chasm of reality. It cannot be bridged.

If you think climate change is changing the world, if you think ‘cheap’ renewable land have disrupted the market, please, I implore you, think again.

I detected not one ioata of discomfort about the future of coal because of #climatechange . I mean nothing. Zero.

They know, they are right, that meeting the *massive* demand for energy is king, and it’s still coal that is rising to the task. Everything else takes a back-seat.

The story we tell ourselves that this has changed is *wrong*.

A major Aussie bank declared it had climate change policy to not support new coal plants emitting more than 800 g/kWh. For those unfamiliar, that’s almost meaningless.

For every Euro bank we lose, an Asian bank arrives, one exec said.

So I hate to be abrupt but I will today. The #climatechange activism we undertake in our developed nation, metropolitan, big city bubbles?

It is totally, utterly ineffective. Compared to the (just and moral!) momentum of global energy needs? It is a squeak against a roar.

The evidence for this, the data...is free. Free, and freely available. It is there, always has been there. I don’t know how to persuade you to look at it without the goggles of your preferred story. But please, try?

Because this whole #climatechange thing we are concerned about, is going *no where* without a plausible energy platform that doesn’t make coal ‘unpopular’ but makes it *redundant*.

So I have to ask you, #climatechange concerned friends. When was the last time you did or said something in favour of uranium and nuclear technologies. Ever? What have you done to make that an easier choice than coal? Anything? Have you decided to be part of the solution on that?

Because we need you. We seriously need you. And you need #nuclear technologies if you care about #climatechange. Looking to meet this challenge without nuclear technologies is a delusion.

And when I took a breath and looked with an open mind, I found nearly nothing about nuclear was what I had thought. It was vastly better, and in some cases I was just flat wrong. And getting to the bottom of this was so good.

I have never been so happy to have been wrong.

So please, let your guard down and give #nuclear a chance. There are good, earnest, caring, professional people who care about climate change who are here to help.

Fin.