Cross Purposes

Prominent Brit bishop booted from enviro group for advocating nuclear

England's Reverend Hugh Montefiore -- member of the Church of England, former Bishop of Birmingham, and long-time champion of the environment -- has been forced to resign from the board of Friends of the Earth for arguing that nuclear power is the only viable way to avoid the oncoming catastrophe of global warming. Montefiore's argument appeared in an article in The Tablet, a Catholic weekly. He is the second prominent environmentalist to spark controversy recently with the same argument, the first being James Lovelock, independent scientist and father of the Gaia hypothesis. The arguments against nuclear power are familiar to any environmentalist, primarily focusing on the waste it leaves behind. But these arguments, Montefiore says, "do not stand up to objective assessment." The danger posed by climate change is too great, and renewable sources like wind and solar simply cannot scale up fast enough to avert tragedy. "The future of the planet," he said, "is more important than membership of Friends of the Earth."