What Changed?

Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek, interviews Patrick Moore, one of the cofounders of Greenpeace, regarding nuclear energy.

[...] My belief, in retrospect, is that because we were so focused on the destructive aspect of nuclear technology and nuclear war, we made the mistake of lumping nuclear energy in with nuclear weapons, as if all things nuclear were evil. And indeed today, Greenpeace still uses the word "evil" to describe nuclear energy. I think that's as big a mistake as if you lumped nuclear medicine in with nuclear weapons. Nuclear medicine uses radioactive isotopes to successfully treat millions of people every year, and those isotopes are all produced in nuclear reactors. That's why I left Greenpeace: I could see that my fellow directors, none of whom had any science education, were starting to deal with issues around chemicals and biology and genetics, which they had no formal training in, and they were taking the organization into what I call "pop environmentalism," which uses sensationalism, misinformation, fear tactics, etc., to deal with people on an emotional level rather than an intellectual level. [...]

"sensationalism, misinformation, fear tactics, etc., to deal with people on an emotional level rather than an intellectual level." Not to mention ignoring science when convenient to do so. Thank you Mr. Moore for standing up and telling the truth about how environMENTAL groups work. Not that some of us didn't already know this, but it is nice to see someone from the other side admit it.