Nuclear Power and AI: The Climate Solution Green America Refuses to Understand

In the early days of nuclear power, environmental groups like Friends of the Earth vocally opposed its adoption. Tragically, this early opposition was largely influenced by misinformation strategically disseminated by the fossil fuel industry. The result has been decades of reliance on fossil fuels, directly contributing to the climate crisis we face today. France, however, stands as a powerful counterexample, demonstrating clearly what was possible had the world chosen differently.

During the oil crisis of the 1970s, France decisively pivoted towards nuclear energy. Today, approximately 70% of French electricity comes from nuclear power. This choice allowed France to avoid billions of tons of carbon emissions that would otherwise have been released into our atmosphere had they continued relying heavily on coal and oil, as other industrialized nations did. The result is clear: France’s carbon emissions per capita are substantially lower than those of similar-sized developed countries that shunned nuclear energy.

Yet, despite overwhelming evidence of nuclear energy's safety and environmental benefits—confirmed repeatedly by rigorous scientific evaluations—organizations like Green America continue to propagate outdated, disproven narratives about nuclear power. In their recent article, "How Smart Is AI if It Uses Nuclear Energy?," Green America criticizes nuclear energy using familiar, debunked arguments about risk, waste, and cost. This stance unwittingly aligns them with fossil fuel interests that historically funded misinformation campaigns against nuclear power to protect their market dominance.

The fossil fuel industry has orchestrated one of the most catastrophic environmental crimes of our era by undermining nuclear energy's public image through fear and misinformation. These strategies have successfully stalled nuclear development globally, thereby perpetuating fossil fuel reliance, driving greenhouse gas emissions, and exacerbating the climate crisis. Green America, by echoing fossil fuel propaganda, contributes to this continuing harm rather than confronting it.

Furthermore, the Green America argument is dangerously ignorant, as their stance inadvertently supports the expansion of fossil fuel use. If nuclear fission is blocked as a clean energy source for powering AI's growing energy demands, fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—will inevitably fill this gap. Thus, the position advocated by Green America not only lacks scientific merit but actively perpetuates the fossil fuel industry's agenda, intensifying rather than alleviating the climate crisis.

Moreover, Green America's critique reveals a troubling misunderstanding of emerging technologies. They downplay artificial intelligence's enormous potential to accelerate environmental solutions—from optimizing energy grids, predicting energy demand to minimize waste, improving battery storage efficiency, and advancing carbon capture technologies, to enhancing climate modeling and precision agriculture for reduced environmental impact. AI-driven analytics can substantially improve the accuracy and efficiency of renewable energy deployment, optimizing placement and operation of solar panels and wind turbines. AI can also enhance transportation networks, reducing congestion and emissions by enabling smarter route optimization and predictive traffic management.

Critically, AI technology has revolutionary potential in managing geoengineering techniques such as cloud seeding. My own argument detailed on Earth Rise Initiatives highlights how AI can accurately analyze vast amounts of meteorological data in real-time, optimizing cloud seeding operations to ensure maximum efficacy while minimizing risks. This technology could substantially cool critical regions of the planet, significantly reducing global temperatures and increasing oceanic CO2 absorption. By dismissing nuclear-powered AI solutions, Green America risks undermining such urgently needed interventions, leaving humanity inadequately prepared to mitigate severe climate impacts.

The path forward requires a comprehensive reevaluation of nuclear energy as not only safe and reliable but essential for a rapid, effective response to climate change. Organizations genuinely committed to environmental sustainability must stop perpetuating the fossil fuel industry's falsehoods. Recognizing nuclear power as the single most effective baseline energy source available today is vital. France’s experience, ignored at our collective peril, stands as a testament to the immense environmental and social benefits of nuclear energy.

It's time to decisively reject fossil-fueled myths and embrace the clear, science-backed reality: nuclear energy is essential to the global fight against climate change, and AI, responsibly powered by nuclear energy, can significantly enhance our ability to protect and restore our planet. Ignoring this reality, as Green America does, is not just misguided—it's dangerously irresponsible.