Anti- to Pro-Nuclear, Pro- to Anti-, who’s changed their mind?
Today I was speaking to a colleague about Fukushima and its implications on public attitudes to nuclear as a way to mitigate climate change. After I mentioned George Monbiot’s recent investigative journalism on anti-nuclear claims, he responded by asking: Okay, sure, that’s one person, but conversely, how many pro-nuclear environmentalists have turned anti-nuclear as a result of Fukushima?
Well, that’s actually a good question, and I don’t really know the answer. So perhaps you can help? (see below for my preliminary sketch). What I’d like to do is compile a list of the following:
– Prominent pro-nuclear advocates who have subsequently become anti-nuclear in their sentiments
– Prominent anti-nuclear people who have changed their mind and switched to support of nuclear energy
The above two are binary choices, but there are other possible (more middle-of-the-road) attitudinal changes that would also be worth considering:
– Anti-nuclear to neutral (or neutral to anti-)
– Pro-nuclear to neutral (or neutral to pro-), and finally…
– Folks who formerly said “we can displace fossil fuels with 100 % renewable energy” but subsequently changed their mind after assessing the hard numbers