Nuclears role - an interview with Dr Patrick Moore

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By John McNamara, NIA Head of Media and PR Patrick Moore takes a sip of water from his glass and continues in pitch-perfect fashion. It is a remarkable performance by the 59 year-old Canadian, an undisputed legend of the environmental movement, an iconic eco-warrior and founder member of Greenpeace who has been on the frontline of environmental debate since the sixties. He’s been busy since landing in the UK after a long-haul from his Vancouver Island home. Straight from the arrivals hall he made his way to Westminster’s trendy Cinnamon Club as special guest of the All Party Parliamentary Group who hosted a dinner on the eve of Energy Choices ’06. There he wowed an invited audience with an impromptu 25 minute speech. But that was last night. Now, after another world-class presentation in front of a packed Energy Choices conference, he holds court effortlessly with a group of seasoned energy journalists who are long on note taking and short on questions. You see, Moore is a man you tend to listen to. “It’s a myth that more people equals more pollution. More like electricity equals education and wellbeing. But lifestyle and technology can drastically reduce and offset the environmental impacts of that wellbeing.”  “And you know, it’s not much warmer now than it was during the last ice age 100,000 years ago. And what happens when glaciers disappear? Biodiversity. Forests return. There’s nothing ecologically good about glaciers…” It’s lines like that which tend to focus his audience. “The problem we have is our reliance on fossil fuels for making electricity. If you consider France and Sweden you’ll see where I’m coming from. France is 80% nuclear and 20% hydro/fossil. Sweden is 50% nuclear and 50% hydro. Their figures for tonnes of CO2 produced per person per year is 6.8 for France and just 6.3 tonnes for Sweden.” “Now look at the UK. They come in at 9.3 tonnes. Then take a look at the US and Australia. The US is 20 tonnes per person. So is Australia. Why? Because these guys depend so much on fossil fuels to make electricity. Despite their nuclear programme, the US is still 70% fossil fuels and along with Canada make up 10% of worldwide carbon emissions. These are not the good guys…” You can see it in the steely-grey eyes, but this man is as passionate and controversial now as he was when his picture flashed around the world’s newsrooms as he vainly tried to save a young seal pup from being clubbed to death. That shocking picture, taken some 30 years ago, appeared in more than 7,000 newspapers and magazines across the globe. Moore has been there… and done that. He was on the Rainbow Warrior when it was bombed and sunk by French paratroopers, killing a long-time friend and Greenpeace photographer. He was a mainstay of the movement that convinced Richard Nixon to halt nuclear weapons testing. His environmental credentials are beyond reproach. And when it comes to making electricity, he is pro-nuclear. “Nuclear is the only large-scale alterative to this misguided addiction to gas. That’s basically the true meaning of Kyoto to me. To provide global equity we shouldn’t measure wealth in terms of CO2 polluting the atmosphere. We need to think another way.” “For me renewables is a niche market with no large-scale answers. 50% of all the global wind power is concentrated in Germany and Denmark. What does that tell you? Solar panels are an energy drain. If you’re serious about climate change then nuclear and hydro are the way forward,” he says. Moore decided some time ago that working towards consensus with competing demands of industry and government was better than confrontation. And he will criticise Greenpeace and other pressure groups when he sees them do “something out of line.” “Greenpeace has stopped 200 applications to build hydro-electric schemes across the globe in the last 10 years alone. That’s pretty dumb.” Does he see any hope for other sustainable fuel sources in the future? “We can do without natural gas. How about using geo-thermal ground-source heat pumps? They could revolutionise the way we live and cut drastically our CO2 output. Trouble is governments might not earn revenue from it.” He is also a great believer in the use of sustainable wood-burning  - but it’s his support for a nuclear future which causes so many people to sit up and listen. “I go back to Sweden. It’s a great example of an environmentally conscious clean country. Their energy mix is 50% nuclear and 50% hydro. That’s the perfect mix. Very low carbon, sustainable and secure. It doesn’t get much better than that.” He’s still pitch perfect. As Moore graciously takes his leave of the assembled writers and heads back to Energy Choices for the afternoon Question Time, you just know it will be a cracker. And he’s still not letting up. Remarkable.

 

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