Is nuclear energy the way? A response to Mateo-Tomás & López-Bao (2022) “A nuclear future for biodiversity conservation?”

Briones-Hidrovo, A. ; Muñoz-Ulecia, E.

Resumen: Mateo-Tomás and López-Bao (2022) expose several arguments on why nuclear energy is needed for biodiversity conservation. The authors aptly expose that land use is the main driver of biodiversity loss and discuss the land footprint of renewable energy, namely solar, wind and hydropower, mining activities and hence the biodiversity impact, compared to nuclear energy. Likewise, Mateo-Tomás and López-Bao (2022) highlight the drawbacks of nuclear energy in such regard. In this sense, they state that “...nuclear power is not exempt of environmental and socioeconomic concerns, such as operating risks, long-term radioactive wastes, high costs, thermal pollution or mining”. Furthermore, they indicate that “all of these issues deserve further attention in order to be minimised, and some of them must be properly accounted for, especially if fair comparisons among the land footprints of nuclear and renewable energies are intended”. Lastly, the authors end by expressing that “nuclear energy should be integrated in the political agenda to prevent that acting against climate change will boost habitat degradation and, in turn, biodiversity loss.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109644

Año: 2022

Publicado en: BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION 272 (2022), 109644 [2 pp.]
ISSN: 0006-3207

Factor impacto JCR: 5.9 (2022)

Categ. JCR: ECOLOGY rank: 18 / 171 = 0.105 (2022) - Q1 - T1
Categ. JCR: BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION rank: 5 / 65 = 0.077 (2022) - Q1 - T1
Categ. JCR: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES rank: 64 / 275 = 0.233 (2022) - Q1 - T1

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 11.6 - Environmental Science (Q1) - Agricultural and Biological Sciences (Q1)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 2.146 - Nature and Landscape Conservation (Q1) - Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics (Q1)

Tipo y forma: (PostPrint)