Students take on nuclear debate

The Dec. 4 editorial, "Debating nuclear energy," raises many issues on which high school students have been focusing — in English — for much of this year. The proposition for the Ninth Annual All Japan High School English Debate Tournament is that "The government should abolish nuclear power plants."

The general affirmative stance in support of the proposition accords with the same opinion questioning the safety of nuclear energy and the fact that so many of the Fukushima residents that the editorial mentions remain displaced. It's pretty hard to argue against nuclear power plant accidents not being possible if nuclear power plants are abolished.

Coming up with a convincing negative argument against the government abolishing nuclear power plants is the added challenge for Japanese students debating in English this year. Debate teams have attempted to play the carbon-dioxide emissions card — CO2 causes global warming and climate change. More severe and frequently occurring extreme weather events have occurred as a result. Furthermore, the World Health Organization estimates that 150,000 deaths each year can be attributed to these climatic changes.

On the other hand, current world energy needs cannot likely be met without nuclear power and we have a moral duty to decrease CO2 emissions worldwide. Nations must not revert to dependency on traditional, fossil-fuel power generation. For these reasons, it might be argued, the Japanese government should not abolish nuclear power plants.

Readers should consider visiting the Shizuoka University of Art and Culture in Hamamatsu City for the English-debate tournament finals this weekend. A remarkable element of Japanese high school education will be on display.

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.