Environmentalist Monbiot Supports Nuclear Power

Watching the outcome of how the earthquake and tsunami affected Japan, one environmentalist says he's convinced that nuclear is better than coal. NPR's Melissa Block talks with Guardian columnist George Monbiot about his decision.

G: Well, that change of heart toward nuclear power from a prominent green has triggered quite a passionate outcry. And George Monbiot joins me now by Skype from his home in Wales to explain his view. Welcome to the program.

GEORGE MONBIOT: Thanks, Melissa.

: And, George, you are looking at this disaster with the nuclear plant in Japan, and finding in there a justification for nuclear power. Why?

MONBIOT: And my thinking is, well, if this is the worst - just about - that nature can do when it comes to a nuclear power plant and if this is the outcome, then the fears over nuclear power have been exaggerated.

: Isn't, though, there a whole lot we simply don't know yet? I mean, how bad would it have to be at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant for you to change your opinion?

MONBIOT: And I'm not calling for complacency here, but I am calling for perspective and saying if there is an industry which is absolutely devastating in terms of the level of fatalities, the level of industrial injuries and, of course, pollution, climate change, everything else, than it is coal. It is not nuclear.

: Hypothetical question for you here. Do you think your conversion to the cause of nuclear power would be the same if you were living, say, 10 miles away from the Fukushima plant?

MONBIOT: Well, of course, it's not a nice place to be right now. But then nor, for instance, is it a nice place to be around a coal plant at any time. What's happening in response to the Fukushima crisis is that a lot of countries are either suspending or scaling back their nuclear power programs and switching back to coal as a result. And we've seen a suspension in both Germany and China, which in both cases will lead to a significant upsurge in the use of coal. And as a result, a lot more people are likely to be killed and injured than if they had stuck to nuclear power.

: George Monbiot, does your conversion to embracing nuclear power change, in some way, your view of the role of renewables?

MONBIOT: No, it doesn't. I still put renewables first. I think that there is enormous potential. But actually, what we're looking at at the moment is not a flat out war between nuclear and renewables. It's a war between nuclear and coal. And I know which side I want to win that war and it ain't coal.

: I've been talking with George Monbiot. He's an environmental activist and a weekly columnist for The Guardian. Thanks very much.

MONBIOT: Thank you very much, Melissa.

Copyright © 2011 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.