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CHANGING_CLIMATE

                                                   January 12, 2022

                                           DANGERBABY
A friend was over one day
(more of a friend of                                CLEARENCE
Dangerbaby, really) and he
mentioned in passing a kid had     This is a really funny question to ask this
asked him "So, what have *you*     particular guy, who-- just for the sake of
done about global warming?"        naming names-- was Jeff Conant, who you may
(You boomer, you.)                 never have heard of, but if you took the
                                   trouble to look him up you'd find he was
His answer was something like      one of those "activist" guys who really was
"Uh... Anything I could think      trying to do anything he could think of.
of?  It didn't work.  Do you
want to hear a depressing            If you're looking for someone who takes
story?"                              the trouble to stand-up for his beliefs
                                     while trying to make the world a better
This left me thinking about          place, Conant would have to be up in the
my own answer, and answers in        first rank-- he's certainly done better
general to this question.            at this than I have.

If they're talking about personal      For example, I've never been thrown
behavior, Jeff and I are both          out of a foreign country for trying to
people who score pretty high-- we      help the indigenous people there.
both use bikes as our main mode of
transit, and just as importantly       Just as far as
we've got similar attitudes toward     environmentalist      [link]
American consumerism-- a large         street-cred goes:
chunk of our energy use goes into
manufacturing.  Being someone who        "Jeff Conant directs Friends of
hardly ever buys anything helps a        the Earth’s international
lot to reduce your own carbon            forests program, which protects
footprint.                               forests and the rights of
                                         forest-dependent peoples by
Where I suspect our answers would        addressing the economic drivers
diverge though, is on the subject        of forest destruction."
of nuclear power.  I've never
talked to him about it, but            Anyway, he's this guy:
it's likely that someone with
FOE has a low opinion of nuclear.        [link]
The left in general has tended
to give nuclear power a bad
rap.

                    NUCLEAR_FAQ

My answer would be something like:

   My story is even more depressing (though
   I suspect you won't believe I've got it
   right): I'm of the opinion that the
   left, with the best of intentions, was
   played, and sent in a completely
   counter-productive direction.
                                               I'm not any where near as
   Starting in the mid-70s, I was trying       high profile as someone
   to get people's attention about the         like Jeff Conant-- my
   damage we were doing by burning huge        most visible publication
   amounts of coal (and back then I only       was probably an op-ed
   thought it was killing thousands of US      letter in Newsday arguing
   citizens every year-- an underestimate      that solar power
   by a few orders of magnitude, even          satellites were feasible.
   without global warming on the table).


   I've been arguing the pro-nuclear line
   off-and-on for what's getting near the 50       We're still only gradually
   year mark, with only minor success-- and the    realizing what's been going
   entire time, up to the present day, it's been   on this whole time, but it
   side-lined by a defensive line that in my       looks a lot like fossil fuel
   opinion remains specious: "But what about       money was promoting the
   solar and wind?"                                solar/wind activists to
                                                   preserve their own business.
     It's *possible* that the
     intellectual climate is
     shifting on this one:

       [link]

   And yet, California's Diablo-Canyon is still
   slated to close in a few years...



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