Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Zion Lights, who featured in WUWT last October when BBC Andrew Neil shredded her defence of Extinction Rebellion on national TV, has quit Extinction Rebellion and defected to the pro-nuclear Environmental Progress group.
Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman Zion Lights quits green movement to become lobbyist for nuclear power saying: ‘I changed my mind’
- Zion, 36, dramatically quit the group to join pro-nuclear Environmental Progress
- Miss Lights said she felt she had been duped by anti-nuke activists around her
- Now she believes the energy source is the future to save the planet
- She became worried about the environment after seeing an advert as a child
PUBLISHED: 01:11 AEST, 26 June 2020 | UPDATED: 01:23 AEST, 26 June 2020
Extinction Rebellion’s spokeswoman has quit the protest group to become a nuclear power campaigner.
Zion Lights, 36, has left the climate change cause, which brought London to a standstill last year, to join pro-nuke outfit Environmental Progress.
…
Mother-of-two Zion said: ‘The facts didn’t really change, but once I understood them I did change my mind.’
…
I’m really impressed at Zion’s courage. It takes a lot of guts to admit you made a mistake, after working hard for the wrong team.
Environmental Progress was founded by Michael Shellenberger, a high profile pro-nuclear environmental campaigner whose no nonsense pragmatic views are frequently praised by WUWT.
Michael Shellenberger wrote the following about Zion leaving XR;
Why Climate Activists Will Go Nuclear—Or Go Extinct
Published on June 25, 2020…
Lights told me she changed her mind after a scientist told her nuclear energy was, in fact, safer than other energy sources. “I said, ‘That’s not what I’ve been told.’ And he said, ‘Don’t just listen to what people tell you.’ And so I looked it up and he was right. The data shows it is safe. And I realized solar panels and batteries are not going to meet demand. The more I read the more I realized, ‘Oh no! These things I believed aren’t true!’”
“I then—perhaps somewhat naively—went to people thinking they’d want to know the truth, and then realizing that they don’t. And that’s always difficult. I really struggled to get Greenpeace to listen to the evidence. At times, they have made things up, disingenuously, and they don’t care! It was like dealing with anti-vaxxers,” she said with a rueful laugh. “I couldn’t deal with it. It was like identity politics. I got fed up.”
Lights said she pushed back against other Extinction Rebellion activists who wanted to promote renewables and criticize nuclear. “When they’re pushing solar, or battery storage, and I say to them ‘I heard that 10 years ago! We have nuclear! We have an option! And what we’ve done is descale all of that and shut it down and look at Germany when they did that! Their emissions went up!’”
…
Read more: https://quillette.com/2020/06/25/why-climate-activists-will-go-nuclear-or-go-extinct/
Zion Lights has appealed to other environmentalists to embrace nuclear power;
A message from a former Extinction Rebellion activist: Fellow environmentalists, join me in embracing nuclear power
Zion Lights
Thursday 25 June 2020 6:04 am
Zion Lights is director of Environmental Progress UK. She was formerly the editor of The Hourglass newspaperAs the lockdown measures we have become so familiar with over the past three months are slowly eased, discussions are turning to how to move forward with recovering from the economic hit of Covid-19 in a way that also addresses climate change.
I have a long history of campaigning on environmental issues, most recently as a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion UK and the founder of its climate reporting newspaper The Hourglass.
Now, I have quit the organisation to take up a position as a campaigner for nuclear power.
…
For many years I was skeptical of nuclear power. Surrounded by anti-nuclear activists, I had allowed fear of radiation, nuclear waste and weapons of mass destruction to creep into my subconscious. When a friend sent me a scientific paper on the actual impacts, including the (very small number of) total deaths from radiation at Chernobyl and Fukushima, I realised I had been duped into anti-science sentiment all this time.
Reading up on safety, I found that the nuclear accidents that have occurred in my lifetime were due to unusual and extreme circumstances, or human errors. Chernobyl, for example, occurred due to the use of a flawed reactor design which caused a power surge and explosion at one of the reactors, and Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi disaster was triggered by the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
However, even when including these disastrous events, scientific research has found that nuclear power is still safer than fossil fuels, once air pollution, accidents (from energy extraction) and greenhouse gas emissions are taken into account.
What of renewable alternatives? Alongside my fellow activists, I had been singing the praises of renewable energy for years. But while renewables can and should be part of the mix in supplying energy to the UK, the technology simply doesn’t stretch to powering our country 24/7.
…
Read more: https://www.cityam.com/a-message-from-a-former-extinction-rebellion-activist-fellow-environmentalists-join-me-in-embracing-nuclear-power/
For every courageous green like Zion Lights, no doubt there are thousands of greens who choose to stay silent. But if you are a green, and you truly believe CO2 is a major threat to the planet, the time for silence has passed.
I’m not saying every climate skeptic is pro-nuclear, but many of us are. If you really want to end decades of pointless policy paralysis, deadlock and stalemate, please consider following Zion Lights and Michael Shellenberger’s lead.
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“Environmental Progress was founded by Michael Shellenberger, a high profile pro-nuclear environmental campaigner whose no nonsense pragmatic views are frequently praised by WUWT.”
“Now she believes the energy source is the future to save the planet”
They still think the planet needs saving. They haven’t learned much.
She “looked it up”. Funny, that’s exactly the same thing many of us did vis a vis CO2 and its supposed magical powers. If she was able to do that with nuclear, then she damn well can with CO2. Unless she just doesn’t want to, which I suspect is the case. She still has that axe to grind, and refuses to let it go.
One big step forward- she has recognized the lies her side has put out.
That does not make her a member of the Heartland Institute- not quite yet.
“I’m really impressed at Zion’s courage. It takes a lot of guts to admit you made a mistake, after working hard for the wrong team.”
This is something so rare in the world (not just today) that it should be celebrated.
I read this article in the Daily Mail two days ago. There was a blog with it. Most posters did not commend her for her actions. Most posters criticised her for not doing her research earlier thus not bringing parts of London to a standstill.
Nuclear energy is the death of the CAGW movement. She’s in big trouble.
If you punish people for doing the right thing you make it harder for others to follow.
“If you punish people for doing the right thing you make it harder for others to follow.”
Where did I say anything about punishing people, Eric? Are WE going to punish her?
She’s still in big trouble from her former XR “friends”. They might punish her.
Man it is said goEs mad in a herd but recovers one by one. Michael Moore, Zion Lights are a start , many more to go. For sceptics there is a Lights at the end of the tunnel.
This is some of the best news I have seen here on WUWT in a long time. Why? Because it shows there is a growing list of one-time leaders of the “CO2 is bad” movement that realize the wind and solar solution pushed by UN bureaucrats and green NGO’s, will not work.
Why is this important? Because the UN and NGO’s don’t support wind and solar because they think it works, but because they KNOW it doesn’t work. If it really worked, Capitalism and Democracy would supply the means for it to be put into practice. So their argument is that the world must give up Capitalism and Democracy, so that they can save the world from over heating.
They fear people like James Hansen (of NASA GISS), Patrick Moore (co-founder of Greenpeace), Roger Moore (rabble rousing film maker) and now Zion Lights; leaders who are proposing a solution to lowering CO2 that actually works, and doesn’t destroy capitalism or democracy, In fact, it strengthens them . This is not the aim of the UN or the Green NGOs.
Should we, who don’t think CO2 will cause our temperatures to rise dramatically, oppose these people because they are doing it lower CO2? I say no, we don’t oppose them, We should support them. There will be plenty of time to show that CO2 is beneficial plant food, after the UN and the green NGOs, with their Capitalism and Freedom destroying agenda, are defeated.
Michael Moore? Roger Moore was a Templar and a Saint:
https://www.memorabletv.com/features/classic-tv-revisited-saint/
“Roger Moore was a Templar and a Saint”
My left eyebrow raised itself at this comment, phil.
Dooo-doo-doo-dooo-doo-doo-dooooooo
He was also James Bond.
…and Beau Maverick
“Because it shows there is a growing list of one-time leaders of the “CO2 is bad” movement ”
But she still thinks CO2 is bad.
This is some of the best news I have seen here on WUWT in a long time. Why? Because it shows there is a growing list of one-time leaders of the “CO2 is bad” movement that realize the wind and solar solution pushed by UN bureaucrats and green NGO’s, will not work.
Why is this important? Because the UN and NGO’s don’t support wind and solar because they think it works, but because they KNOW it doesn’t work. If it really worked, Capitalism and Democracy would supply the means for it to be put into practice. So their argument is that the world must give up Capitalism and Democracy, so that they can save the world from over heating.
They fear people like James Hansen (of NASA GISS), Patrick Moore (co-founder of Greenpeace),Michael Moore (rabble rousing film maker) and now Zion Lights; leaders who are proposing a solution to lowering CO2 that actually works, and doesn’t destroy capitalism or democracy, In fact, it strengthens them . This is not the aim of the UN or the Green NGOs.
Should we, who don’t think CO2 will cause our temperatures to rise dramatically, oppose these people because they are doing it lower CO2? I say no, we don’t oppose them, We should support them. There will be plenty of time to show that CO2 is beneficial plant food, after the UN and the green NGOs, with their Capitalism and Freedom destroying agenda, are defeated.
“Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi disaster was triggered by the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.”
As I understand it, too, that disaster was due in large (ALL?) part because the backup diesel generator sets (for emergency cooling power – last resort to disaster is lack of cooling water), were located BELOW sea level. HELLO!!!!
I have not seen Fukushima plans, but I don’t think they were designed to withstand a tsunami triggered by a 9.0 earthquake. Just like intensive care units in our hospitals are not designed to cope with COVID-19. Would you call a hospital design with 6x more intensive units than usually needed a total waste?
The other two reactors, that had their emergency generators located higher, survived just fine.
Very poor example since we should have been prepared for Covid-19 since there have been warnings since 2005 and even a request from the WHO to have a plan for a SARS pandemic. Such a plan would NOT have virus patients taken anywhere near a normal hospital but to isolation units. These could be rapidly set up in suitable buildings that have been designed from the start to be able to carry out that function. Sports halls, exhibition spaces etc. It is much easier and cheaper to make a few little design tweeks at the start. I only recently learnt that cross channel ferries used to be built with strengthened lower vehicle decks to carrier heavier vehicles. What sort? Tanks. The MoD covered the extra costs so should a Cold War Soviet attack on the west have started the ferries could be used to transport equipment across the Channel immediately.
We’ve known that a pandemic is possible for hundreds of years. The problem is that being constantly vigilant costs money. Year after year, the predicted pandemics failed to pan out, and people got tired of spending the money on preparation.
I never understood why the island nation that invented the word “tsunami” built a nuclear power station on the coast..
If you want to use water for cooling, building on the coast makes a lot of sense.
Had the emergency generator not been flooded, the world would have ever heard of Fukushima.
I’m a fan of passive safety, reactors which can’t melt down.
Fukushima was a disaster of a design, no containment dome, next to a big fault line, no backup water tower, no plan to fly in extra pumps if everything went wrong, pumps in the basement.
You wouldn’t have needed much pump capacity to save Fukushima, even a man carryable 2KW pump can move many tons of water per day
The explosions of containment domes were dramatic.. Next to a big fault line? Sure, it is Japan. Please realize that this reduces a credibility of your “facts”.
Yeah, LFTR plants can’t meltdown, and they self shutdown – Elvis can leave the building with all plant employees, fly to Las Vega, and the if trouble hits, the plant will shut itself down. Still, I guess, never say never. Murphy is a lurker.
No containment dome? You are thinking of Chernobyl.
There is no where in Japan that isn’t next to a big fault line.
I don’t believe they were below sea level. However they weren’t 10 meters above sea level, and weren’t in water tight rooms.
FYI
The largest tsunami wave was 13 m above HWM:
The ‘basement generators were 6m above HWM;
they were all in water tight rooms fitted with small ‘header tanks’ fed from external bulk tanks (these were damaged or washed away). When the header tanks ran out ~ 9hrs & the emergency battery system kicked in, after 8hrs ALL power failed, a day after the wave hit.
1 water tight room was smashed open.
The other 3 emergency generators in a building up the hill were unaffected…BUT the control room at the plant was flooded & part demolished so power couldn’t be distributed.
Then it all got a bit challenging !!!
I’m told through the grapevine that in the mid-2000’s, well before the 2011 earthquake, TEPCO’s management and Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) had been warned that clear evidence had emerged documenting the past occurrence of a high wave tsunami capable of breaching the Fukushima sea wall.
Those in charge of reactor safety in TEPCO and in the NRA were aware of the issue. Reasonably timely and affordable modifications could have been made to the Fukushima reactor safety systems and to the reactor control systems to harden the complex against the threat.
It is not hyperbole to say that a loaded cannon, in the form of a high wave tsunami, was pointed directly at the Fukushima reactor complex. But neither TEPCO nor the Japan NRA took any substantive action prior to the 2011 earthquake to deal with the problem.
The Fukushima meltdowns happened because those in TEPCO’s high corporate management and in the Japanese government’s regulatory authority who were responsible for protecting public health and safety were totally derelict in their duty.
These managers had all the resources needed to deal proactively and cost effectively with the threat of a high wave tsunami. There was plenty of time available to do the work. But instead of acting in accordance with their clear responsibility, they stood by and did nothing in the face of a clear and present danger.
“…the time for silence has past.”
passed, not past
Fixed, thanks 🙂
Zion Lights has shown intelligence and courage in her pivot to nuclear – both deeply unpatriotic qualities in our UK society. Sadly it won’t change the country’s self destructive energy trajectory. The UK has self-righteously decided to abolish energy. This will be fun to watch.
Only 36 too. Wish I’d had my road to Damascus that young.
For mine it was the Australian ABC trotting out Helen Caldicott to sprout her claims unchallenged that raised serious doubts about a lot of people and sources of information. To quote Pythons (my favourite programming language) “You have to work it out for yourself”.
Ah, yes! Suddenly, I’m WOKE! But with another cause! This one is BETTER!!
Call me a skeptic, please! She is no more enlightened than the previous cause. Once famous, always famous!
I cringe at the accolades for her sudden WOKENESS. She seeks fame and is granted it.
Watermelons hijacked the resurrection of Callendar’s theory. The actual resurrection was the fault of others. It started in the mid 50s.
I’m all for a smaller footprint of humans, in more ways than just carbon, but for the sake of not wasting a resource. But I can’t back poverty causing policies to achieve it, and I can’t back the use of science (or academia) in propaganda. The latter will be the undoing of society.
Nu attempt tot right irrational Gear of radiation: https://youtu.be/JpcUCo0ebNA
Sorry. My attempt to fight irrational fear of radiation. Video No More Radiophobia https://youtu.be/JpcUCo0ebNA
Someone from the woke extinction rebellion is finally ‘awake’, most unusual.
It gets even better. There is a report by professor Edward Calabrese of Massachusetts university that exposes the fake science of radiation toxicity – the so called Linear No Threshold model (LNT). He has described poor science, flawed experiments and data manipulation going back to Herman Joseph Muller. In his preamble, he shares the results of an experiment in which one group of mice were exposed to ionizing radiation 60 times background levels their whole lives. Instead of developing disease, they appeared healthier than the control group and lived 30% longer.
The report is too long to give justice to here, but is available on the Global Warming Policy Forum website, link below
https://www.thegwpf.org/dangers-of-nuclear-energy-much-less-than-previously-thought/
I am an extreme datum ~3 REM WBE of Genevieve M. Matanoski’s seminal NSWS that concluded that low level ionizing radiation is correlated with good and better health – radiation hormesis.
Well, there’s a simple reason that nutty environmentalists, greenies, watermelons—whatever you want to call them—go insane when you mention reasonable, practical alternatives to their looney ideas.
They’re not very smart. Dumb, low IQ, bereft of basic reasoning. It’s sad (for them) but luckily there are organized groups where they can socialize, share similar wacky ideas and interests, and go on vacations together, chaining themselves to fences and trees, harassing merchant ships and whaling vessels, and generally making fools of themselves. It’s loads of fun.
I’ll hazard a guess and predict that one of the applications of nuclear will be the synthesis of liquid fuels to power things that move. The energy density of liquid fuels is so much larger than of batteries and their handling is so much less cumbersome than hydrogen. It’s a no-brainer.
You might want to watch this video. She has just joined this guy.
Excellent talk by Michael Shellenberger.
His kind of rational scientific environmentalism is the best chance for a non-suicidal national energy policy. The green imperative is irresistible, like it or not. So it boils down to the nuclear question. It’s back to nuclear or back to the jungle.
I’m thinking “no”. Not given the physics of how a bolt starts, propagates (leader stroke, return stroke, etc.)
I am just home from a 400 mile bicycle ride that took me past decommissioned Point Beach and Kewaunee NPP, to see their replacement with uncounted thousands of PV panels in productive farmland.
It is a good time to be Septuagenarian.
Zion Lights, and many other, may believe nuclear power is the way of the future, however in reality the money and manufacturing countries are making a ‘Dash for coal’ with many big investments.
Meanwhile in the India, China, Japan, and some parts of Africa they understand that fossil fuels have more utility and are cheaper.
From https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/markets/japan-plans-dash-co7al-43-statio7ns-12-yea7rs/
From https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/15-countries-most-dependent-on-coal-for-energy.html
2018 figures …
The future is still powered with the vast majority of electricity and motive power coming from the burning fossil fuels.
“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent”
Well done, good decision.
Can’t be done. Too long to install enough to replace even a decent fraction of regular power with nuclear. Moreover, boiling water reactors are very dangerous. Go to http://www.fairewinds.org for the details.
Zion Lights ??? What kind of name is that ?