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The movement against nuclear energy is experiencing a revival. Since the nuclear emergency began unfolding in Japan protests against nuclear power have occurred in cities worldwide. Many are small, including protests of a few hundred people in Tokyo this past Friday and in New York city this past Saturday. However in Germany, a world leader in renewable energy technology, 200,000 people turned out for an anti-nuclear protest on March 26th, and thousands rallied around the country again one week later. In the United States the debate over nuclear energy is a hot topic, and it has been complicated by the looming threat of catastrophic climate change. Some climate change watchdogs believe the relatively cleaner process of producing nuclear energy when compared to energy from coal makes nuclear the lesser of two evils, and worthy of continued support. However many environmentalists have only renewed calls for abolishing nuclear energy plants while also pushing for speedy development of renewable energy technologies. A six-day UN climate change conference in Bangkok, Thailand this week was organized to resolve tabled issues at the 2010 Cancun conference. In a statement Greenpeace urged innovative solutions in Bangkok, saying, “The world does not have to choose between climate disasters and disasters caused by dangerous energy like nuclear. We can choose a safe future where our societies are powered by renewable energy.” Activists from Asian and African countries will stage protests every day of the conference. They argue that the industrialized world caused climate change and should bear the burden of financing a future of clean and safe industrialization worldwide.

GUEST: Harvey Wasserman, journalist, author, and a leading advocate of renewable energy technologies, Wasserman has been at the forefront of the anti-nuclear and environmentalist movements since the early 1970s. He is also an adviser to Greenpeace, and the the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

Find out more at www.nonukes.org and www.solartopia.org.