Join the club

Nuke, nuke, nuke, nuke or oil . . .

There are mediocre people saying mediocre things at the 28th annual mediocre United Nations summit called the Conference of the Parties—aka COP28, a mediocre acronym. But we found ourselves nodding in agreement with a couple with whom we seldom agree: Al Gore (!) and John Kerry (!), of all people. We hope you didn’t spill your coffee. This COP28 confab is being held in Dubai this week, and it’s mostly about climate and climate change. And what to do about it. Or better put: What to

promise to do about it. There is a lot of talk. Which probably doesn’t help global warming.

Al Gore, who we think used to work for a guy from Arkansas, blasted the president of the UN talks, who happens to be the president of the national oil company of the host nation, the United Arab Emirates. Not only did the UN put a climate change summit in the UAE, an oil state and member of OPEC, but it gave the top job at the summit to Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who runs the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

And you thought the UN didn’t have a sense of humor.

Al Gore says that national oil company is “one of the largest and one of the dirtiest, by many measures, oil companies in the world.” Pledges from such an outfit—for example, to capture leaking and flaring methane from gas productions and pipelines—was worth about as much as you’d expect from an oil executive in a nation without a free press.

“The No. 1 surprise” from new data, Al Gore said, “was how far off the reporting from the oil and gas industry is. And we see it here in the United Arab Emirates, you know, nice folks. But the numbers they put out are just not right. And we can prove they’re not right.”

It’s good to know that somebody over there acknowledges mendacity in these things. It reminds one of the Paris Accords from several years ago. Except then the promises to combat carbon fuels came from nations, not oil companies. And we didn’t believe those promises, either. Especially from certain nations that couldn’t be counted on to give the correct numbers from the get-go. Would you trust Red China or Iran or Syria to give an accurate count of anything?

This is not to say that nothing should be attempted, or nothing can be done. There certainly is a way to lower the amount of carbon we are belching into the atmosphere. (And even for our tin-foil hat friends who don’t believe in climate change, despite the proof, do you really enjoy the thought of inhaling pollution? Wouldn’t you sleep better knowing tomorrow you’ll inhale less?)

The solution: Nuclear.

Which brings us to John Kerry. The former senator and presidential candidate (he has that in common with Mr. Gore) is the United States “climate envoy,” and as such was also in the UAE this past week. He was caught on tape saying the world should look more at nuclear power. And if mankind can develop fusion nuclear reactors (as opposed to fission), then long-term waste disposal wouldn’t be a problem.

“This is a call to action, folks,” he said, according to The Hill, also saying fusion has the potential “to revolutionize our world … and provide the world with abundant clean energy.”

Join the club, Mr. Kerry. There are many of us who’ve been saying for years that nuclear is the key to reducing carbon emissions. It’s clean, it’s always available (even at night and when the wind is still), and with the right measures it can be completely safe.

It would cost money, but putting a nuclear plant at every turn in the river would eventually pay for itself financially and environmentally. If we only would.

And maybe such an idea would eventually offset the hot air coming from these UN confabs.