RIM: Lesson - Propaganda and Critical Thinking

An image shows cooling towers at a nuclear power plant.Propaganda and Critical Thinking

A Case Study in Nuclear Energy

As stated throughout this module, you have an important job when evaluating the vast amounts of information to which you have access: thinking critically, recognizing propaganda, and dissecting how stakeholders use rhetoric to persuade. In this lesson, you will hone these abilities as you look more closely at a topic that often becomes the center of propaganda: nuclear power.

Reading Assignment 1

An image showing the article as it appeared in USA TodayDownload and Read the article Some Rethinking Nuclear Opposition Links to an external site. by William M. Welch (USA Today).

The Fukushima meltdown of 2011 illustrated the inherent dangers of trying to harness a process that is mindboggling to many. Japan was struck by the awesome power of an earthquake, a deadly tsunami, and then the power of atomic fission.

Obviously, nuclear energy is another environmental issue in which there are many caveats that require critical and logical thinking. Often ideas that are this large operate on a risk/reward basis. If we can eliminate the possible deleterious effects of global warming, is expanding nuclear energy worth the risk? France, for instance, receives roughly 80% of its power from nuclear energy. Other countries are turning away from the risk entirely. Again, the stakes are very high.

Radioactive elements submerged in water create steam that turns turbines. Simple enough. The byproduct is intensely harmful, but not produced in huge quantities (compared to the 200 billion tons of carbon dioxide produced by consuming fossil fuels). The horrible events that rocked Fukushima and frightened the public about possible contamination illustrate another point about propaganda: fear is its primary weapon.

In our country, nuclear catastrophe is nearly synonymous with Three Mile Island, yet neither Three Mile Island nor the Fukushima meltdown can compare to the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl in 1986.

Reading Assignment 2 - Chernobyl

For the second reading assignment, there are three articles to download and read. Begin with an informative article: Chernobyl Accident 1986 Links to an external site. by the World Nuclear Association.

Again, uncertainty and fear are fertile grounds in which propaganda can flourish. The following articles take divergent stances on the severity of the Chernobyl accident specifically and the use of propaganda generally by supporters and opponents of nuclear energy. Download and read both articles (they are slightly longer, but you need to read both articles in their entirety).

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