Zion Lights is a formally trained science communicator, author of a carefully researched book titled The Ultimate Guide to Green Parenting, and an experienced environmental activist who worked for a year as a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion.
About a month ago, she began openly advocating for an expansion of nuclear energy as a major tool in the battle to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Her conversion wasn’t sudden, she spent about a decade independently learning about the value of nuclear energy.
Even after she had decided that nuclear was far safer and more important than she had been taught to believe, she was careful about openly advocating for the technology. That was something that just wasn’t done by her peers and close associates.
While still a member of the Green Party, she realized that curiosity about nuclear energy was almost taboo. That realization led her to almost immediately leave the party because she did not understand why such an important topic could not even be discussed.
With a growing sense of unease about the directions taken by some of her fellow members of Extinction Rebellion, Zion decided to leave the organization. Coincident with her separation from XR, she and Michael Shellenberger had several widely separated conversations. Eventually she accepted Shellenberger’s offer to become director of a newly-formed UK branch of Environmental Progress.
Zion and Michael have determined that the UK is an important center of nuclear energy industrial development. She is bringing her experience, education and passion to the task of spreading good news about nuclear power.
We had a wide ranging discussion about her journey from a firmly entrenched member of the Green Party, activist environmental organizations and even an environmental alarmist to become a vocal proponent of using nuclear fission to enable clean prosperity.
Please join in the discussion and welcome Zion Lights to the community of pro-nuclear advocates and technological optimists.
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Courage – there to see.
Ms. Lights introduced her conversation with a brief discussion of our species’ tribalism, why objective evaluation of situations or facts are not nearly as important as influencing other members of the group, and reaching consensus and agreement. Because in our early development, if you were voted off the island, you would die.
That fear remains: it’s origins and consequences are explored by Elizabeth Kolbert in Why facts don’t change our minds. (New Yorker, Feb 2017)
Good article. I’m heartened that Zion Lights has accepted the challenge head-on.
Thanks to Rod and Zion Lights for the fine presentation.
So this nuclear power thing is actually a PR problem. It is a case of needing to be sold. It’s more about feelings than facts and figures.
My father told me years ago that you can sell a product by generating a demand. If people have a demand for nuclear plants, the supply will follow.
The Simpsons were mentioned as being a great influence on all of those environmentalists. Apparently, there is power in Homer and Blinky. It’s hard to fight this icon of Americana.
However, like the Lincoln Project, I think a few well placed TV commercials would go a long way. I’m an old guy and have a couple of retro commercial ideas. I hope there is some appreciation for these silly ideas.
1) There is a guy who looks like the Marlboro man. There is no greater symbol of Americana than the American cowboy. The Grand Canyon Suite is playing. The ad starts in black and white. Our Marlboro man cowboy is crushing a pack of smokes and tossing them in the trash. “I thought I got rid of these,” He declares in a low Western drawl. He goes on to say, “I like fresh air now.”The camera pulls out to show him and his horse in a meadow with hyperbolic cooling towers. The ad makes a transition from the black and white to a Kodachrome like color. There are colorful flowers growing around the cooling towers. The next shot is of our Marlboro man character riding off into the sunset and saying, “My horse likes the fresh air too.” Then there is the symbol of the atom with a few electrons spinning around it. It morphs into a 1970s yellow smiley face and the ad is over.
The real Marlboro man died of lung cancer. He would have been better doing nuke ads.
2) This ad also starts in black and white. The song, “As Time Goes By,” is playing. An actor and actress are dressed up like Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman are kissing in front of a nuclear plant. The actress turns to the actor and says, “Rick! Thank you for taking me here. I love the fresh air.” The same effect is then used with the picture becoming colorized. This time when the effect is applied it is similar to the look as applied to old black and white movies. Again, the atom symbol is shown with the morphing effect into the 1970s smiley face.
Mr. Bogart died of Cancer.
Anyway, it’s just a thought.
Glad to have you aboard Ms. Lights. I guess there is reason to be hopeful… I chose nuclear power to be my life’s work after a similar awakening. No doubt I speak for many contributors when I say we will back you so long as you stay on message. A good spokesperson is a priceless.