By Michael Boyle

Copyright slashfilm

“The Simpsons” is a progressive show by most standards. Its voice-of-reason character is young liberal vegetarian Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith), for instance, and it was airing episodes supporting queer rights and even dismantling the groomer narrative years before that was a safe thing to do. As a franchise, “The Simpsons” is especially passionate when it comes to the environment, with the entire plot of “The Simpsons Movie” revolving around the importance of stopping lake pollution.

But although “The Simpsons” loves the environment, it did contribute to perhaps one of the most harmful eco trends in the entire late 20th century: trashing nuclear power. After all, the show’s main character works as a safety inspector at a power plant despite being unqualified for the job, while the plant’s owner is a comically evil and corrupt baron who dumps toxic sludge into local parks to save a few pennies.

Nuclear energy is bad, the show’s made clear, which is unfortunate because the United States’ current carbon footprint could’ve been lowered significantly if we hadn’t backed away so strongly from nuclear power. Most recently, my home state in New York has shut down its nuclear power plant, Indian Point Energy Center, allegedly for environmental protection reasons; the result’s been that New York’s decarbonization efforts have been severely set back, with dirty energy like fossil fuels being used to make up for the drop in nuclear-powered electricity. (The good news: The new governor seems to be back on board with nuclear energy, so New York hopefully won’t make this mistake again.)

Of course, “The Simpsons” is just a comedy show. But although the series is making a joke, not everyone in the nuclear industry is laughing. Julia Pyke, joint managing director of a nuclear plant currently in construction in the UK, has called out “The Simpsons” for its fear-mongering ways. As she explained on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, “I definitely think ‘The Simpsons,’ which I very much enjoy, has done the nuclear industry a big disservice. […] I am not Mr. Burns.”