Patrick Moore is a co-founder of Greenpeace. In a recent speech in Boise, he re-affirmed his support for a major expansion of nuclear power. The Idaho Statesman's Rocky Barker reported:
Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore says there is no proof global warming is caused by humans, but it is likely enough that the world should turn to nuclear power - a concept tied closely to the underground nuclear testing his former environmental group formed to oppose.
The chemistry of the atmosphere is changing, and there is a high-enough risk that "true believers" like Al Gore are right that world economies need to wean themselves off fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gases, he said.
Ignoring the silly "...nuclear power - a concept tied closely to underground nuclear testing ..." from the reporter, Barker, (about as closely tied, incidentally, as ordinary munitions testing is to hydrocarbon power plants), this should be the main policy position of sensible greens. He is right about anthropogenic global warming, "unproven but likely" is the actual scientific consensus. Nuclear power is safe (another scientific consensus), and is the only practical substitute for coal/gas/oil (economists' consensus as I read it).
Support for Patric Moore's position, somewhat oddly considering that it has a strongly environmentalist aim, is from folks like Lemuel Calhoon on the right rather than from the left. The fact that Moore is something of a lone voice among greens, suggests to me that the main motive of most supporters of severe greenhouse gas limitations is to punish industry or capitalism rather than to limit warming.
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