HUGHES: Another Nuclear No-brainer!

[Oscar]

Published in the Wadena News on October 29, 2008 under the title of "Nuclear Energy"
Published in the Northeast Sun on October 31, 1008 under original title.

OP-ED

Another Nuclear No-brainer!

One look at Brad Wall’s list of advisers for his new Partnership to Advise Government on Nuclear Industry Development (Press Release Oct. 20, 2008) tells us all we need to know to be able to predict the outcome of this publicly-funded no-brainer!

Predictably, the so-called co-founder of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore, shows up yet again as the token ‘environmentalist’ in the nuclear debate.

Once and for all, we need to know the truth about this guy as revealed in the February 2007 report entitled: Patrick Moore: The Case of the “Greenpeace Co-Founder” and His Corporate Clients, prepared by the Environmental Health Fund and researched by Public Information Network.

According to that report, Patrick Moore has no connection to Greenpeace today and had nothing to do with its founding in 1970. His application for work as a crew member on it’s boat was accepted two years after the group was founded, and he also served briefly as president of Greenpeace from 1977 to 1979. However, he was soon drummed out of the organization as a troublemaker after nearly scuttling Greenpeace. In a newspaper column in 1993, authentic Greenpeace founder, Bob Hunter, called Moore “The Judas of the ecology movement”.

Fifteen years ago, Moore founded Greenspirit, a Vancouver-based industry consultancy and he has frequently published opinion pieces attacking the environmental movement, and promoting nuclear power, toxic chemicals, logging and aquaculture.

A few on his long list of corporate clients: on behalf of the Forest Alliance of BC, an industry-funded pressure group, he testified before the Canadian government’s Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources (Vancouver, May 13-14, 1999); he has promoted Newmount Mining operations in the US, Peru and Ghana (Rocky Mountain news, Feb. 4, 2006); and, he is listed on the Nuclear Energy Institute website as one of the Friends of NEI in their 2005 Notes.

He is also co-chair of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, which is funded by the trade association, Nuclear Energy Institute, promotes nuclear energy in the US, and is involved with the Canadian Nuclear Association and Atomic Energy Ltd. (Sunday Times (Australia), June 11, 2006).

Using his apparent expertise, will Mr. Moore tell Brad Wall about the enormous demand for carbon-emitting fuels used in the mining, transportation and processing of uranium into nuclear fuel? Will he tell Mr. Wall about the results of yet another study which indicates the increased risk of leukemia in young children who live near nuclear power plants? And, will he inform Mr. Wall of the increased threat of testicular and ovarian cancers to uranium mine workers?

Maybe later, Mr. Wall will consult with such nuclear experts as Dr. Gordon Edwards, President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to education and research on all issues related to nuclear energy? Or, with Dr. Helen Caldicott, physician and author of many books on the health risks of the uranium and nuclear energy industry – both of whom have devoted their lives to studying this lethal industry and traveling the world over to warn others of the inherent dangers?

Or, maybe he will just continue to ignore the warnings?

After all, if he doesn’t know about the dangers, it will be easy for him to plead innocence when, in a few years, his grandchildren ask him why he caved in to the pressures from this greed-crazed industry!

. . . just wondering.

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK