Thousands of children could die after court backs campaign group over GM crop in Philippines, scientists warn
Scientists have warned that a court decision to block the growing of the genetically modified (GM) crop Golden Rice in the Philippines could have catastrophic consequences. Tens of thousands of children could die in the wake of the ruling, they argue.
The Philippines had become the first country – in 2021 – to approve the commercial cultivation of Golden Rice, which was developed to combat vitamin A deficiency, a major cause of disability and death among children in many parts of the world.
But campaigns by Greenpeace and local farmers last month persuaded the country’s court of appeal to overturn that approval and to revoke this. The groups had argued that Golden Rice had not been shown to be safe and the claim was backed by the court, a decision that was hailed as “a monumental win” by Greenpeace.
Many scientists, however, say there is no evidence that Golden Rice is in any way dangerous. More to the point, they argue that it is a lifesaver.
The point is that green energy, so solar, wind, etc. is cheaper, quicker, easier, and more sustainable while providing everything that is necessary.
Except theres always going to be slack times, and I personally would rather have nuclear power filling in those dips, than fucking coal or oil.
Especially with new generations of reactors being able to run off of older generations waste.
This would be true, except for the fact that nuclear is terrible at filling in slack times. Nuclear power for the most part needs to run really consistently, 24/7. Better to fill gaps with a diversity of reasources, more transmission, and storage.
Everything you’ve mentioned are “supply shaping” measures: trying to match supply to an independent, wildly variable demand.
We need to focus on “demand shaping”. We need to “flatten the peak” of our energy consumption, by adjusting how and when automated systems use power.
For example, water heaters consume about 20% of our energy. If we were to install thermostatic mixing valves after our water heaters to provide a consistent output, we could wildly vary the setpoint of our tanks, from anywhere just above shower temperature, to just below the boiling point. We could have our water heaters soak up every available kilowatt during a solar peak, raising the stored water temperature to 190F, and storing that hot water until it is needed for showers overnight.
Desalination, hydrogen electrolysis, and various other industries could also adjust their production rates to take advantage of favorable energy pricing, shutting down production entirely and backfeeding the grid with their own, on-site solar and wind production when energy prices favor their power more than their nornal production.
With the “slack times” heavily moderated by effective demand shaping, the rigid consistency of nuclear isn’t nearly as detrimental.
I mean, we obviously need to do both. The conversation in the thread is about nuclear, which is a supply side resource. DR and demand shaping do even more to enable truly renewable resources. Why do the demand shaping to enable nuclear when renewables are cleaner and cheaper?
We do need both. My concern is that the focus seems to be almost entirely on supply shaping, while demand shaping is either completely ignored, or is intended to maximize base load generation by driving demand toward overnight hours that can’t be met by solar.
We need a much greater focus on demand shaping than we currently have, which is why I promote it almost exclusively. Supply shaping measures will take care of themselves.
The issue is that none of those have the energy density of nuclear power. A single mid-sized nuclear plant can power a small city, where that same city would need at least a half-dozen solar farms around the area (assuming there’s enough cleared land to support it - rooftop solar can offset, but it generally will not replace mains power), or tons of wind turbines (again, subject to area - not every place is a good candidate). Geothermal and hydroelectric are subject to that same issue - you can’t place them anywhere, there are very specific requirements to get one up and running.
I agree we should work towards 100% green energy, but nuclear is an effective option dollar-for-dollar and acre-for-acre until we figure out a good way to increase energy density of wind or solar to a point where we don’t need enormous tracts of land dedicated to them in order to support places where people live.
Dollar for dollar renewables are more effectiv and also we don’t have enough time for nuclear. We need low co2 energy faster than in a decade