• Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Carter had a hugely ambitious plan to build solar power satellites to wean us off both of them. He didn’t like nukes and he was a nuclear physicist.

      • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Except he was in a position to push nuclear instead of a cockamamie scheme where you need to launch hundreds of rockets that are 10x the size of the Saturn V over the course of years to build solar farms the size of Manhattan.

        A man who once had radioactive piss from a nuclear accident chose that over nukes.

        • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          No, he didn’t. He (or rather, Congress) financed a lot of research into alternative energy due to the oil crisis.

          In actual fact, he pushed mostly for coal as a domestic energy source as a response to the oil crisis. His main concern regarding nuclear during his presidency was due to proliferation concerns.

          In his defense, the magnitude of impact of fossil fuels on climate change was not as well understood during his presidency. That would take another 10 years.

          As I said, 1988 was the year Congress got the expert testimonials and when the UN founded the IPCC.