About nuclear waste:
The United States has over 90,000 metric tons of nuclear waste that requires disposal. The U.S. commercial power industry alone has generated more waste (nuclear fuel that is "spent" and is no longer efficient at generating power) than any other country—nearly 80,000 metric tons. This spent nuclear fuel, which can pose serious risks to humans and the environment, is enough to fill a football field about 20 meters deep. The U.S. government’s nuclear weapons program has generated spent nuclear fuel as well as high-level radioactive waste and accounts for most of the rest of the total at about 14,000 metric tons, according to the Department of Energy (DOE). For the most part, this waste is stored where it was generated—at 80 sites in 35 states. The amount of waste is expected to increase to about 140,000 metric tons over the next several decades. However, there is still no disposal site in the United States. After spending decades and billions of dollars to research potential sites for a permanent disposal site, including at the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada that has a license application pending to authorize construction of a nuclear waste repository, the future prospects for permanent disposal remain unclear.
Current Storage Sites for High-Level Radioactive Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel and Repository with License under Review
That's quite a large amount of nuclear crap to me.
[...]
In 2016, an estimated 4.2 million people died as a result of high levels of ambient air pollution."
Ouch
I doubt that figure very much, but even if it were true, Do you realize how many billion humans aren't starving to death thanks to fossil fuels? Don't you realize that without fossil fuels it's impossible to feed 7 billion people? Can't you imagine what a shitty quality of life we'd have without fossil fuels? You better pray to the gods you do not get to see the end of the fossil fuels because it's not going to be anything nice.
Look at the source. If you don't trust the UN for some reason, look at the data in another place, if available.
We can do something about the amount of fossil fuels now, and preserve them for other uses instead of burning them. That requires political commitment, however.
The map you showed is a compilation. We’ve been talking about nuclear power. The map you are showing isn’t that showing nuclear material not only from nuclear power plants, nuclear bombs, medical nuclear waste, and industrial nuclear waste.
The map is an accurate. It does not show San Francisco, (Hunters Point) or the Farallon Islands.
So not exactly sure what the map is and is not indicating.
In the US we could reprocess the spent nuclear fuel rods, but politically we don’t want to do it. Same with storage. We could store it safely, but again the politics gets in the way.
But let’s be fair about this, we have the same issue with the residue from burned fossil fuels. Coal slug heaps are radioactive, contain many cancerous compounds and the particulate which gets blown by the wind causing respiratory diseases especially in kids.
Yes coal and fossil fuels provide has provided us with machines to grow, harvest and transport food. It keeps us warm. Allows to to cook food without building a fire and many other conviences including transportation. I would gladly fly to Europe on a plane in half a day than spend 3 months on a ship powered by the wind.
But at the same time that same fuel is killing us prematurely. If you go back 200 years the averag life span was around 35 years. Up until recently the average life span had doubled no doubt thanks to the use of fossil fuels. But now our life span is being reduced. Our children have a shorter life expectancy than we do. The number one cause of this decline is the burning of fossil fuels.
The world has changed. Just as onne England’s energy came from the burning of trees they cut them down and had no more forests and an energy crises. Fossil fuels to the rescue.
But now we are realizing fossil fuels are killing us prematurly. It’s time for a technology change. Will we ever completely abandon fossil fuels not anytime soon. But on the other had are you and your family willing to die 5 years prematurely?