Summary

• Objects (1 modified, 1 added, 0 removed)
  • Caselist.RoundClass[1]
  • Caselist.CitesClass[1]

Details

Caselist.RoundClass[1]

EntryDate

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1		-2016-10-04 22:40:30.393
	1	+2016-10-04 22:40:30.0

Caselist.CitesClass[1]

Cites

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	1	+Negative Case
	2	+I Negate Resolved: Countries ought to prohibit the production of nuclear power.
	3	+Because the resolution asks us what countries ought to do, my Value is Morality.
	4	+
	5	+My Criterion is Utilitarianism, defined as maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain for the greatest number of people. This is the best criterion.
	6	+
	7	+Utilitarianism is the only philosophy that makes sense for governments, because they have to balance the interests of all their citizens. Philosopher Robert Goodin 1995:
	8	+Robert E. Goodin. Philosopher of Political Theory, Public Policy, and Applied Ethics, Utilitarianism as a Public Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 1995. p. 26-7
	9	+The great advantage of Utilitarianism as a guide to public conduct is that it avoids unnecessary sacrifices, it ensures as best we are able to ensure in the uncertain world of public policy-making that policies are sensitive to people’s interests or desires or preferences. The great failing of more deontological theories, applied to those realms, is that they fixate upon duties done for the sake of duty rather than for the sake of any good that is done by doing one’s duty. Perhaps it is permissible (perhaps even proper) for private individuals in the course of their personal affairs to fetishize duties done for their own sake. It would be a mistake for public officials to do likewise, not least because it is impossible. The fixation on motives makes absolutely no sense in the public realm, and might make precious little sense in the private one even, as chapter 3 shows. The reason public action is required at all arises from the inability of uncoordinated individual action to achieve certain morally desirable ends. Individuals are rightly excused from pursing those ends. The inability is real; the excuses, perfectly valid. But libertarians are right in their diagnosis, wrong in their prescription. That is the message of chapter 2. The same thing that makes those excuses valid at the individual level – the same thing that relieves individuals to organize themselves into collective units that are capable of acting where they are isolated as individuals are not. When they organize themselves into these collective units, those collective deliberations inevitable take place under very different circumstances, and their conclusions inevitably take very different forms. Individuals are morally required to operate in that collective, in certain crucial respects. But they are practically circumscribed in how they can operate, in their collective mode. And Those special constraints characterizing the public sphere of decision-making give rise to the special circumstances that make utilitarianism peculiarly apt for public policy-making, in ways set out more fully in chapter 4. Government house utilitarianism thus understood is, I would argue, a uniquely defensible public philosophy.
	10	+
	11	+Contention 1: Fossil Fuels
	12	+Nuclear power is a non-carbon-emitting source and has and will reduce emissions.
	13	+Yusuf 2008 - Moeed Yusuf. Does Nuclear Energy Have a Future?. Boston University. Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, 2008. MC
	14	+Although not explicitly stated under the Kyoto Protocol as a source against which countries can obtain credits, Nuclear energy is a non-carbon-emitting source.49 The entire nuclear production chain contributes between 10 and 25 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kWh, which is approximately 20 to 60 times less than fossil fuel chains.50 The International Panel on Fissile Material’s “Global Fissile Report 2007” estimates that an installed nuclear capacity of 1072 GWe (an addition of 700 GWe to the current level) instead of an equivalent additional capacity for modern high-efficiency coalelectric plants would reduce projected emissions by 1 billion tons of carbon (tC) per year.51 Nuclear Energy Agency puts the emissions savings from an additional 748 GWe at 200 Gt by 2050.52 Even today, nuclear energy reduces the energy sector’s contribution to atmospheric carbon dioxide by eight percent assuming that it substitutes fossil fuel units; this amounts to 600 million tC annually, twice as much as the Kyoto Protocol is expected to save by 2010, according to IAEA estimates.53
	15	+
	16	+Large energy grids require either nuclear power or fossil fuels.
	17	+Beillo 2013 - David Biello. “How Nuclear Power Can Stop Global Warming,” December 12, 2013.http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-nuclear-power-can-stop-global-warming/. SD
	18	+As long as countries like China or the U.S. employ big grids to deliver electricity, there will be a need for generation from nuclear, coal or gas, the kinds of electricity generation that can be available at all times. A rush to phase out nuclear power privileges natural gas and —as is planned under Germany's innovative effort, dubbed the Energiewende (energy transition), to increase solar, wind and other renewable power while also eliminating the country's 17 reactors. In fact, Germany hopes to develop technology to store excess electricity from renewable resources as gas to be burned later, a scheme known as “power to gas,” according to economist and former German politician Rainer Baake, now director of an energy transition think tank Agora Energiewende. Even can lead to the construction of more coal-fired power plants. as happened in the U.S. after the end of the nuclear power plant construction era in the 1980s.
	19	+
	20	+Germany proves that ending the production of nuclear power results in the increased use of coal.
	21	+Abrams 2013 - Lindsay Abrams (Staff Writer at Salon on sustainable energy), "Germany’s clean energy plan backfired", Salon (web), July 30, 2013. www.salon.com/2013/07/30/germanys_clean_energy_plan_backfired/
	22	+When a nuclear power plant closes, a coal plant opens.. At least, that’s the way things are shaping up In Germany, where the move away from nuclear energy appears to have backfired. For the second consecutive year, according to Bloomberg, the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions are set to increase.. German Chancellor Angela Merkel made headlines back in 2011 when, in the wake of the reactor meltdown in Tokyo, she announced the impending closure of Germany’s 17 nuclear reactors. Up until then, nuclear-generated energy contributed to a full quarter of the nation’s electricity. At the time, the closings were framed as a positive effort to increase the country’s use of clean energy. As an expert then predicted to the New York Times: “If the government goes ahead with what it said it would do, then Germany will be a kind of laboratory for efforts worldwide to end nuclear power in an advanced economy.” But predictably, When nuclear plants began to shut down,, as eight immediately did, something else had to take its place. And Coal, which according to Bloomberg is favored by the market, did just that.. In the absence of a strong government plan to push natural gas and renewable forms of energy, The share of electricity generated from coal rose from 43 percent in 2010 to 52 percent in the first half of this year, according to the World Nuclear Association.
	23	+
	24	+There are several impacts:
	25	+A. The use of coal harms human health and is largely responsible for global warming.
	26	+Keeting 2001 - Martha Keating (Policy Advisor at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), “Cradle to Grave: the Environmental Impacts from Coal”, Clean Air Task Force, June, 2001 SD
	27	+The electric power industry is the largest toxic polluter in the country, and Coal, which is used to generate over half of
	28	+the electricity produced in the
	29	+U.S., is the dirtiest of all fuels.1
	30	+From mining to coal cleaning,
	31	+from transportation to electricity
	32	+generation to disposal, Coal releases numerous toxic pollutants into our air, our waters, and onto our lands. .2 Nation- ally, The cumulative impact of all of these effects is magnified by the enormous quantities of coal burned. each year – nearly 900 million tons. Promoting more coal use without also providing additional environmental safe- guards will only increase this toxic abuse of our health and ecosystems. ∂ The trace elements contained in coal (and others formed during combustion) are a large group of diverse pollutants with a number of health and environmental effects.3 They are a public health concern because at sufficient exposure levels they adversely affect human health. Some are known to cause cancer, others impair reproduction and the normal development of children, andand still others damage the nervous and immune systems.. Many are also respira- tory irritants that can worsen respiratory conditions such as asthma.. They are an environmental concern because They also damage ecosystems. because power plants also emit large quantities of carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide, which is), the “greenhouse gas” 2 largely responsible for climate change..
	33	+
	34	+
	35	+B. Climate change has numerous adverse and irreversible effects on human life. According to the NCA 2014:
	36	+NCA 2014 - National Climate Assessment 2014 “National Climate Assessment 2014: Impacts on Society.” US Global Change Research Program. Global Change.gov. (2014) Web.
	37	+Climate change is affecting the American people in far-reaching ways. Impacts related to climate change are evident across regions and in many sectors important to society—such as human health, agriculture and food security, water supply, transportation, energy, ecosystems, and others—and are expected to become increasingly disruptive throughout this century and beyond.¶ Climate change affects human health and wellbeing through more extreme weather events and wildfires, decreased air quality, and diseases. transmitted by insects, food, and water. Climate disruptions to agriculture have been increasing and are projected to become more severe, over this century, a trend that would diminish the security of America’s food supply. Surface and groundwater supplies in some regions are already stressed, and water quality is diminishing. in many areas, in part due to increasing sediment and contaminant concentrations after heavy downpours.¶ In some regions, prolonged periods of high temperatures associated with droughts contribute to conditions that lead to larger wildfires and longer fire seasons. For coastal communities, sea level rise, combined with coastal storms, has increased the risk of erosion, storm surge damage, and flooding. Extreme heat, sea level rise, and heavy downpours are affecting infrastructure. like roads, rail lines, airports, port facilities, energy infrastructure, and military bases.¶ The capacity of ecosystems like forests, barrier beaches, and wetlands to buffer the impacts of extreme events like fires, floods, and severe storms is being overwhelmed. The rising temperature and changing chemistry of ocean water is combining with other stresses, such as overfishing and pollution, to alter marine-based food production and harm fishing communities.
	38	+
	39	+C. Nuclear power prevents air pollution, which is extremely hazardous to human health.
	40	+IAEA 2013 – International Atomic Energy Agency, “Climate Change and Nuclear Power 2013,” Vienna, 2013. AT
	41	+Nuclear power plants emit virtually no air pollutants during their operation. In contrast, Fossil fuel power plants are among the major contributors to air pollution. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is a major human health risk factor. Outdoor air pollution due largely to fossil fuel burning causes over one million premature deaths worldwide each year. Air pollution also contributes to health disorders from respiratory infections, heart disease and lung cancer. 46. New evidence indicates that the adverse health effects of air pollutants occur in some cases at lower air pollution concentrations levels than previously thought. The range of health effects is also broader. They now include impacts on neurodevelopment and cognitive function. Air pollution is increasingly linked to chronic diseases such as diabetes 47.¶ A recent joint study from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University’s Earth Institute examined the historical and potential future role of nuclear power in preventing air pollution related mortality. The study estimates that globally, Nuclear power has prevented over 1.8 million air pollution related deaths that would have resulted from fossil fuel burning between 1971 and 2009. The largest shares of prevented fatalities are estimated for European OECD Member States and for the USA. Furthermore, the calculations show that the deployment of nuclear power can make an even higher contribution to reducing air pollution related deaths in the future. Projections from a simulation model assess hypothetical scenarios in which all nuclear capacity would be phased out and substituted by fossil fuels. If all nuclear electricity production projected by the IAEA in 2011 (that is, after the Fukushima Daiichi accident) 48 for the period 2010–2050 were to be delivered by coal fired power plants, the number of premature air pollution related deaths could increase by 4.4 million for the low IAEA projection and by 7 million for the high. The large scale expansion of natural gas use would likewise cause far more deaths than the expansion of nuclear power. In the all gas case (generating the projected nuclear electricity by gas fired power plants instead), the resulting additional human deaths are estimated at 0.4 million (low projection) and 0.7 million (high projection). The overall conclusion of the study emphasizes the importance of retaining and expanding the role of nuclear power in the near term global energy supply 49.
	42	+Now move to my opponent’s case…
	43	+With that I conclude my speech. I urge an affirmative ballot.

EntryDate

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	1	+2016-10-04 22:40:32.180

Judge

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	1	+idk

Opponent

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	1	+Connor Loquisty

ParentRound

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	1	+1

Round

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	1	+2

Team

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	1	+Marlborough Steinberg Aff

Title

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	1	+SeptOct NC

Tournament

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	1	+WBFL Narbonne