What a Green Modernist Would Say

I know the environmental movement will have truly matured when the leader of a big mainstream green group can say something like this:

We won’t meet the carbon targets if nuclear [power] is taken off the table.

That’s from Jeff Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Here’s the opening to the Guardian story:

Combating climate change will require an expansion of nuclear power, respected economist Jeffrey Sachs said on Thursday, in remarks that are likely to dismay some sections of the environmental movement.

Prof Sachs said atomic energy was needed because it provided a low-carbon source of power, while renewable energy was not making up enough of the world’s energy mix and new technologies such as carbon capture and storage were not progressing fast enough.

Incidentally, it appears that the headline in the Guardian article is incorrect (as was pointed out by Jesse Jenkins on Twitter), since nothing in the piece supports Sachs suggesting nuclear power is “the only solution to climate change.” Anyway, should be interesting to see what the reaction to Sachs is from various enviro/climate quarters.