Dr. Henry Miller - Why Won’t Earth Day Talk About Nuclear Power?

Earth Day was once focused on practical environmental solutions but critics say today’s movement is driven more by fear and politics than science. With nuclear power largely ignored despite growing energy demands, some argue the environmental movement is rejecting one of the biggest tools available to reduce emissions.

Dr. Henry Miller joins the program to discuss what changed, why nuclear energy remains controversial, and whether modern environmentalism has lost sight of real-world solutions.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome back to the program. It's a pleasure to be with you. Earth Day is this week, and it's not one of those things that I necessarily spend a lot of time on. In fact, I think it's kind of silly. But now we discover that the people running Earth Day won't even mention nuclear power. Has the movement that was supposed to have saved the planet actually become one of the biggest threats to solving the problem? Dr. Henry Miller joins us now, a medical doctor and molecular biologist. He's the Glenn Swagger distinguished scholar at the Science Literacy Project. Dr. Miller, welcome back.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Good to be with you, Lars. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

I'm a fan of nuclear power, so I I like nuclear power and I I do think it's one of the best solutions. Why do you suppose the folks behind Earth Day and most of the greenies can't stand nuclear power?

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Well, it doesn't fit with their uh touchy-feely um uh radical uh anti-technology uh ideology is the simple answer. And there are other examples, uh they they're very anti-pesticide um without knowing its benefits and uh how well it's the it's tested, uh pesticides are tested, and so on. Um it it really has evolved from you know the uh Earth Day has been with us since nineteen seventy. Yep. And it was uh originated by Senator Gaylord um uh Gaylord Gaylord Gaylord Nelson. Gaylord Nelson. Gaylord Nelson. Yeah. Uh and it was kind of touchy-feely back then, and uh let's all hold hands and sing kumbaya, that sort of thing. But it has really evolved into a kind of apocalyptic negative uh entity, uh, and very anti-technology and without uh uh uh viable solutions to uh some of our admitted uh environmental problems. Uh and it's a shame. It it could have been uh a positive uh force, but it isn't.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

You know, I I I I suspect that over the last 20 years or so, you and I may have had this conversation before, but wasn't there one of the people, uh not necessarily behind the organizing of Earth Day, but Rachel Carson, who wrote that book called Silent Spring, that I think was largely propaganda. But one of the things she said in it was, wouldn't it be nice if we could figure out there are plants that naturally have their own natural herbicides or natural pesticides that keep bugs away and they keep other competing plants away, but they do it sort of naturally. Wouldn't it be nice if we could engineer that? And it turns out we can do that. Isn't that correct?

SPEAKER_01 2:48

We we can certainly do that, and we have done that, and that's one of the technologies that the the greenies uh who celebrate Earth Day dislike and reject.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Um Rachel Carson almost forecast its arrival by saying, why don't we figure out how to get the plants to grow and generate their own herbicide or their own pesticide and keep the bugs and the competing plants away.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

But uh what over what overshadows that is that um her rejection of pesticides, particularly her attacks on DDT, have been enormously destructive. And she was responsible more than any other person for uh the banning of DDT in many parts of the world. And what uh what that led to, according to some researchers, is uh the um uh as many as uh 60 to 80 million deaths from malaria as a result of that. So she was one of those greenies who didn't know what she didn't know and caused a a great deal of damage.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Is there any reason to say bring back, say, DDT? I know that's kind of a radical notion, but but I've read defenses of it as well. And if you say, well, if the choice is using this and and holding malaria back and saving millions of lives, and as long as you're using it carefully, uh is there a reason to to continue to ban it?

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Oh, it it the the ban has been lifted in many places because it's it's not one of these uh pesticides that you picture with a crop duster. Um it it it's used very sparingly indoors to kill mosquitoes along with uh mosquito nets uh and in mainly in tropical climates. So uh the the pressure to restore DDT has been such that it is used now in in many places, but the bands and others still remain and are are lethal to uh to inhabitants.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Well, let's go back to to nuclear power though. What what's it gonna take to get them persuaded? And is the fact that, say, even Bill Gates, uh who's uh who's a a hardcore lefty, he's usually you know one of these left left wingers that you know believes that uh in global warming and all that, and yet even he has come around to nuclear power. Is it possible to get uh Earth Day and the and the people behind it to understand this is one of the solutions to that problem?

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Well, from your lips to God's ears, Lars, uh it's it's very hard because they're ideologically opposed to certain modern technologies, including especially nuclear power. And in general, they don't consider trade-offs, that uh uh cost-benefit analysis needs to be a part of uh environmental protection and environmental improvement. Uh and uh I I don't see it. Uh as as I mentioned in an article on Earth Day that'll run tomorrow, um in the extensive uh writing on the uh Earth Day website, there is not a single mention of nuclear power. The word nuclear does not appear. And that's uh it it's absurd. Uh it's just not it's not a viable uh approach to environmentalism.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

And yet it seems kind of odd, Dr. Miller, that uh that they don't have any problem with the technology of solar panels, they don't have any problem with the technology of big wind turbines or generators, but they have all kinds of problems when it comes to envisioning using nuclear power. That's Dr. Henry Miller. He's a medical doctor and molecular biologist. He's currently at the Science Literacy Project. Dr. Miller, it's a pleasure as always. Hey, most people think waking up in the middle of the night, that's just part of life. But doctors now say those nighttime wake-ups, they could be affecting your long-term health. That means inflammation, immune function, even memory and mental clarity. I used to think of mattresses as just another kind of furniture. That is till I got my ghost bed. Because ghost bed does not build mattresses like furniture. They build engineered sleep systems, serious health equipment that's designed for relief and recovery, not looks and not fluff. Your body ought to be healing while you sleep, not trying to fight to get comfortable. And ghost bed, ghost bed's engineered cooling helps prevent overheating, a major cause of nighttime wakeups. And precision support, it helps keep your spine aligned. I noticed the difference right away. Deeper sleep every night, clearer mornings, and actually feeling rested again. You can try it out for yourself. 101 nights risk-free. Right now, Ghostbed is having their spring sale, plus an extra 10% off for my audience. Do this. Go to ghostbed.com slash Lars and use promo code Lars. That's one word, G-H-O-S T. Ghostbed.com slash Lars, and then be sure to use promo code Lars. Glad to be with you on a Tuesday. Always glad to take your calls at 866-HLARS. That's 866-439-5277. Coming up in a moment, a 10-year-old boy nearly died after an illegal dirt bike rider hit him and then drove away in Washington, D.C. So why is Washington, D.C. solution to give those illegal dirt bike riders their own space instead of simply enforcing the law? We'll talk about that coming up next.