Meeting Amanda Little On Her "Power Trip" Book Tour
Last night I had the pleasure of attending a book talk by Amanda Little, author of Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells – Our Ride to the Renewable Future. It was the last stop on her ten city tour to promote the book. It was fitting that this was the final stop in the tour – Washington, DC an important battle ground in energy.
Specifically, Amanda gave her talk in a bookstore in Chevy Chase on Connecticut Avenue north of the National Zoo, which happens to be close enough to where Amanda grew up and went to school that her mother is a long time customer of the store. She had lots of friends in the audience; there were probably 50-75 people there, which is a great showing for a cold Tuesday evening talk about a book on energy.
The talk was appropriately hosted by the Prose and Politics bookstore, one of those terrific independent book sellers that remains standing because it serves a unique customer base. In Chevy Chase, Maryland there are a lot of political addicts who do not care much about paying a little extra for their books and are loathe to drive to a big box retailer or shop online.
Aside: Funny story. While waiting for the talk to begin, I found a chair and took a seat. There were three delightfully engaging women of a certain age talking next to where I was sitting. They were obviously old and dear friends. I had to smile when one of them mentioned that she was enjoying Audible books downloaded onto her iPod. One of the other ladies said in amazement, “now aren’t you the tech savvy person these days.” The iPod owner then went on to explain how much more convenient it was to have a huge library of audio books with a few clicks rather than having to borrow and return tapes to the community library. End Aside.
One of the reasons that I took the time to attend was that Amanda, an engaging writer and speaker, had managed to write a journey of discovery book about energy – the same genre as Gwyneth Cravens’s Power to Save The World – that covered 376 pages of relatively small type and still only mentioned nuclear energy in passing on two pages. I had seen Amanda talk about her book before and I wanted the opportunity to ask her about the energy “elephant” that she does not like to mention.
Interestingly enough, others must have had the same thought as she toured the country. She mentioned during her introduction that she did not plan to talk about nuclear in the talk, but that it had been one of the most frequently asked questions during the tour and she would be happy to talk about it during the question and answer session.
Once the talk was over, I stood up and asked the first question by describing my experience of having lived for months at a time on a ship with a tiny fuel source that lasted for 15 years.
Oops – it is time to head off to the day job. I’ll share more details about the exchange when I return. However, here is how she signed my book:
To Rod and the future of nuclear energy. Shine on.
Amanda Little.
You can see a larger version of the scanned image of the inside cover of my new prized possession by clicking on it.
Rod and Amada are examples of people with unrealistic expectations and can not understand why the real is the way it is.
Amada writes a book about renewable energy and Rod can not understand why she does not discuss nuclear power. Rod, Amada is selling books to people who do not want to read about nuclear power.
Rod writes a blog about nuclear power but does not understand the electricity generating industry. Nukes are a very good way to make electricity as are many other ways. Rod has a hard time understanding why folks in West Virginia make electricity with coal.
I’ll have to check out the book. The author’s worth checking out too ;-).
The energy source whose name we dare not mention.
A useful question to ask is how we can get our supporters “in the closet” (figuratively) to “come out” for nuclear. Let’s just say that I have this weird feeling there are a lot of closet nukes these days.
@Kit P – If Rod “does not understand the electricity generating industry”, then, by inference, neither do entire countries that are choosing to build nuclear-powererd electricity generating power plants. How could they all be so stupid or duped?
I cant find any contact on your blog so this is my only try to make myself heard. this is the case
In the autumn I have been working together on a project with KSU (nuclear safety and education) which aims to make YouTube videos of their brochures, first out is “ionizing radiation”. Swedes target audience is between 13 to 35. The goal with movies is to spread knowledge about the subject in a simple, flexible format that is easy to absorb.
We are so happy with the result that we now want to get them to the public, in my search for pages that would fit, I turned on your. I thought it might fit.
anyway. This is the result http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DE82FF9404E57FF3 Swedish version
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2F32241381ECC3E7 English version
Best wishes, George
http://www.kollektivetlivet.se
Georg – thank you for sharing. I have watched the first four so far. Visually very interesting. Solid facts. The narrator is a bit monotone for my taste, but over all the effect is good.
For future reference, you can find contact information by scrolling down to the bottom of the main blog page at http://atomicinsights.blogspot.com
Realistically, nuclear energy from fission can be either a renewable or a nonrenewable energy resource depending on the technology used. Fission breeder reactors can produce more fuel than they consume and therefore can be regarded as “renewable.” Putting aside even better commercial nuclear options around Thorium (including LFTR – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZR0UKxNPh8 – video 1:22, worth checking out), there’s plenty of uranium.
Bernard Cohen “Basic Facts” excerpt (1983): “He comments that lasting 5 billion years, i.e. longer than the sun will support life on earth, should cause uranium to be considered a renewable resource”
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/cohen.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Cohen_(physicist)#Publications_and_awards
Enough uranium for 5 Billion years seems pretty renewable to me too.
The book Rod Adams refers to, “Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy” is a very good book. Here’s a great Long Now Foundation presentation & Q&A video with the author and her engineer-savvy mentor (Gwyneth Cravens, Rip Anderson): http://fora.tv/2007/09/14/Could_Nuclear_Power_Save_the_Planet/ (video 1:44)
Regards,
Orlando Stevenson
http://thisweekinsecurity.blogspot.com
Disclaimer: This information is provided
Wow, Doc what a wild leap of logic. The correct inference is that English majors are ignorant of the environmental impact of producing electricity and the decision making process for choosing different energy sources to produce electricity.
I am not inferring that English majors are stupid or that anyone else is stupid or duped. If fact, I am very impressed with Rod who says he was an English majors who became Engineering Officer on a sub. This is a demonstrated ability to learn.
Kit – I was an English major at a school that required completion of 4 semesters of calculus, two semesters of chemistry, two semesters of electrical engineering, two semesters of physics, a semester of statics, a semester of fluid dynamics, two semesters of thermodynamics, and two semesters of systems engineering. I did okay in those courses. I also managed to earn an MS in Systems Technology.
I had a distinct advantage as the product of a mixed marriage – dad was an electrical engineer who worked for the local power company for 35 years and often “brought his work home” to the dinner table. Mom was a high school English teacher. The whole family used to spend several weeks every summer camping in National Forests.
Yet you think that I am ignorant. I am amazed that you continue to read what I write. Why would anyone want to read the efforts of someone they consider to be ignorant about the very subject under discussion?
If that is what is required at Annapolis for an English degree I would hate to see the requirements for a sociology major… 😉
I think Rod understands things fine. Wanting to change the established structures of energy generation and delivery may be idealistic in some ways, but it represents realism for the longer term.
Kit P, you’re doing a great job of the wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing gig, but your attacks on Rod’s perspicacity regarding energy industry issues are starting to undermine your programme of damning nuclear power with faint praise.
Not that I mind that.
Guest – thank you for the kind compliment – even if I had to Google perspicacity before I could figure out what trait you were giving me credit for having. Being an English major gave me a reasonable vocabulary, but most importantly, it gave me the humility to recognize that I did not know every word. It also helped teach me the value of looking things up. Boy, I wish that Google had been around when I was an undergrad!
Hi rod. My apologies if my previous post lacked perspicuity.