Comments on: Stewart Brandâ€™s Strange Trip: Whole Earth to Nuclear Power

By: DV82XL

DV82XL — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:39:49 +0000

I suppose I find it easier to believe that Brand is a true convert, the Whole Earth crowd in general were not doctrinaire anti-technology in any way. Certainly one could imagine them throwing their support into LFTR, for example without too much of a streach.

However, I am not sure of others. Moore I knew obliquely and met several times through mutual acquaintances. This was in his Vancouver days before Greenpeace became a household name, and I was not impressed. I suppose that tends to color my opinion of green-to-nuclear converts.

By: Steve Darden

Steve Darden — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:17:52 +0000

I understand your concern -- certainly there is a cash and social incentive to do the lectures, the books, etc. But since we can't know what is in another's mind, we have to use our "black box toolkit" to model what is powering their motivators. In the case of Stewart Brand I am very comfortable that he is completely sincere. He has done his homework -- e.g., on the limits of renewables and the risk-benefit case for nuclear generation. His logic is sound and internally consistent. I've been observing Brand's development w/r/t energy policy for some five years -- I've seen the effort he has invested in learning. If you've not seen or heard the 2006 SALT debate (Seminars About Long Term Thinking) that Stewart organized between Peter Schwartz and Ralph Cavanagh check it out. The topic is Nuclear Power, Climate Change and the Next 10,000 Years. Others such as Patrick Moore I don't know much about. Recently I've been reading (and listening) my way through Bill Gates new blog Gates Notes. Check out this one Bill Gates backs nuclear power and the importance of affordable energy for the poor. Bill has been doing serious homework as well, coming out with perspectives much like Brand. He has four podcasts on energy policy that I think are revealing of his thought process.

By: DV82XL

DV82XL — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:25:58 +0000

Better late than never, I suppose, but I have a hard time shaking the feeling that some of these are motivated more by the opportunity to cash in on their public conversions, which seem to come at the point in their careers where they have become irrelevancies in the Green movement.