Ian Lowe 
Quarterly Essay 27 Reaction Time 
Climate Change and the Nuclear Option

Australia is at a crossroads: if we are to halt global warming, do we need to stride resolutely into a nuclear future?


In this engrossing and persuasive essay, Ian Lowe discusses his one-time belief in the benefits of nuclear power and explains why that belief has faltered. He engages with the leading environmentalists, like James Lovelock, who advocate going nuclear, as well as with the less savoury aspects of the Australian politicking. He discusses whether other countries might need to use nuclear power, even if Australia doesn’t, and offers an authoritative survey of Australia’s energy alternatives – from solar and wind power to clean coal. Above all, he explains why taking up the nuclear option would be a decisive step in the wrong direction – economically, environmentally, politically and socially.


‚Promoting nuclear power as the solution to climate change is like advocating smoking as a cure for obesity. That is, taking up the nuclear option will make it much more difficult to move to the sort of sustainable, ecologically healthy future that should be our goal.‘ —Ian Lowe,
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Über den Autor

Ian Lowe is an emeritus professor of science, technology and society at Griffith University and was a reviewer for the United Nations-sponsored 2005 Millennium Assessment Report and the 2004 report of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program. He is the president of the Australian Conservation Foundation and is the author or co-author of sixteen other books, including Living in the Hothouse (2005) and A Big Fix (2008). He lives on the Sunshine Coast.