Dr. Jordan B. Peterson noted the harmful effects of closing nuclear power facilities for ideological purposes as Germany shuttered the nation’s remaining nuclear plants and Elon Musk strongly advised against the move.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel approved the gradual closure of the nation’s nuclear plants following the 2011 nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, which raised public opposition to the emission-free and relatively safe power generation method. The closure of Emsland, Neckarwestheim II, and Isar II, the remaining three nuclear facilities in the country, was slated to occur last year but was delayed until last Saturday as the Russian invasion of Ukraine heightened concerns over energy affordability and reliability.
Musk, an advocate of a gradual transition toward renewable energy amid the continued use of fossil fuels, warned that closing nuclear plants in Germany would force the central European economic behemoth to rely upon coal power, which produces higher emissions and causes more deaths than nuclear power plants over time through increased air pollution.
“Germany should not only not shut down the nuclear power plants, it should reopen the ones that shut down. Those are the fastest ones to restart. It’s crazy to shut down nuclear power plants,” he said in an interview shared on social media. “Please do not shut down nuclear power plants and please reopen the ones that have been shut. This is total madness to shut them down. I want to be clear: total madness.”
Peterson, a DailyWire+ host and clinical psychologist, informed the world’s richest man that those who want to close nuclear plants are advocating for an inherently demented policy. “But crazy is the point,” Peterson told Musk on social media. “Anti-nuclear is not a pro-environment stance; it is an anti-human, anti-industrial stance. So crazy is a feature not a bug.”
Peterson has frequently contended that “idiot hypothetically environmentalist policies” in nations like Germany cause more expensive energy and noted the “pseudo-religious” ideological elements which some modern climate movements maintain.
“The environmentalists offer us a story to live by and it’s a pseudo-religious story and it essentially elevates the biosphere, the earth, Gaia the earth goddess, to the status of primary deity and characterizes her as sort of a waif-like innocent victim, easily taken advantage of and fragile,” Peterson told Fox News host Tucker Carlson last month. “It casts the entire human endeavor on the social front as a raping and pillaging, patriarchal, monster only interested in power. And it casts the individual as a devouring mouth riding on the back of that giant.”
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While some nations, such as the Netherlands and Poland, seek to expand their nuclear energy initiatives, other European countries are concluding their nuclear programs despite the constrained energy supplies emerging from worsened relations with Russia. Elevated energy prices severely impacted the continent’s economy in the fall and winter as several manufacturers in central Europe shuttered their operations due to the cost increases. Germany relied on Russia for more than half of natural gas supplies before the war.
“This is a national security risk. Listen, playtime is over,” Musk continued in the interview. “It is a national security risk to shut these things down.”