One of the most militant and outspoken environmentalists in history has changed his stripes. Patrick Moore, the founder of Greenpeace, which was founded to fight nuclear and save the whales, wants more nuclear in the US, now.
Moore says there is no proof global warming is caused by humans, but it could be. He says there isn’t enough potential for wind, solar, hydroelectric,geothermal, or other renewable energy sources. Wow, he must be reading my blogs. Moore basically says it’s like buying fire insurance. And, the only viable clean source is nuclear. He adds we have uranium in the US and there is more in Canada and Australia. Nah, we like to buy oil from the Middle East. Nuclear is scary.
When asked why he left Greenpeace, he said: "None of my fellow directors had any formal science education. They were either political activists or environmental entrepreneurs. " Basically, the whole thing turned into Al Gore. People who were trying to advance their political aims or make money from the greening of America. So the man who founded it quit.
He’s on another kick you will be reading a lot about. Greenpeace went after Chlorine but failed. Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, "Silent Spring" was the global warming of chemicals. Then they turned to PVC. Failed again. Now they are after Phtalates(pronounced thal-ates). These are compounds that make plastics flexible. Found in IV bags, children’s toys, shower curtains. They are one of the most practical compounds in existence. You will see them as DINP. It has been found safe in hundreds of tests. Despite the science it is the new bogeyman. There is a political campaign to reject DINP. Mr. Moore says this is a safe chemical and could be replaced by an unsafe one if banned. California has banned DINP in toys. If you think the EPA and the other agencies would never replace something with a more dangerous substance, let me remind you of another case. MTBE was used in gasoline because it was mandated by the EPA. Aeromatics standards were put in place to benefit the launch of ethanol. One problem, not enough ethanol to meet the standard that was established. Only other alternative, MTBE. EPA says meet the standard, we know about the dangers of MTBE. Hundreds of gallons of MTBE went into the water supplies in the US with a 100 year life and no way to get it out. Nice, isn’t it. We poison the water supply to make a marginal gain in air quality that was going away as new cars with new technology were bought. Thanks to the farmers and the Archer Daniels Midland for that one, not the scientists.
So the scientist who founded Greenpeace is saying we are destroying our society for false causes. He rejects global warming from a scientist’s perspective. He believes it is being pushed by political activists and those who will benefit financially from it. He feels the dreaded compound DINP is perfectly safe and is under attack for the same reasons.
Lastly, he believes we better get about building nuclear plants as fast as we can in this country before we let Al Gore destroy our standard of living. Fire insurance, he calls it. Making our country safe and our standard of living better for my grandchildren, that’s what I call it.
I had to take a break from your Blog, the internet and news broadcast for a few days, because it is just too damn depressing. It seems that those in power are too overwhelmed with what to do with all of the issues that are confronting us. It also seems we are trying too hard to deal with everything and to please everyone and are not focused on the real priorities that are most important and matter.
I have sent many letters to both parties Congressman locally and in Washington concerning the energy and economy issues impacting our country, but have not yet received one response that deals with the problem head on. I am more pissed off that I have not received one response from any of my Republican Congressman, I mean not one. Interestingly enough, I have received a number of responses from both Illinois Democratic Senator’s, but their liberal views and ideas for dealing with the issues just don’t make sense to me.
I am not sure what it is going to take, but I fear we are just spinning our wheels and not going anywhere. That’s probably not true, we are moving, but unfortunately, it’s backwards.
Ken:
It won’t do any good to write letters. We need to get organized like the NRA. That’s the whole purpose of the blog to build a foundation and keep it growing into an association that has clout. That’s all our elected officials respond to.
Bill