Update 9/9/10 Finished it! A little dry for all the facts but a very important read for me. It's helped me realize my biases, and we can't afford biases. Stewart provides a summary at the end of his book I hope will serve to whet your appetite to read this important book.
Ecological balance is too important for sentiment. It requires science.
The health of natural infrastructure is too compromised for passivity, it requires engineering.
What we call natural and what we call human are inseparable. We live one life.
Stewart Brand's new book has a great accompanying website with a million cool links
and enough of the book to let you know you're going to love reading it. But just in case
you're not sure, check out the talk (and great questions afterwards) from The
Long Now Foundation. (Click arrow to listen, right click to download) Stewart Brand Rethinking Green
Are you a nuclear over reactor?
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Mr. Brand was also kind enough to endorse my book Rad Decision: A Novel of Nuclear Power. This profile of the US nuclear power industry is written from a true insider's perspective – I've been at it over twenty years working at reactors.
I believe there are many energy futures possible – with or without nuclear – and we'll make the best decisions if we first understand our energy present in realistic terms. I don't think many have a good handle on it right now. We've heard from academics, pundits, advocates, executives and spokesmen on nuclear. The coverage of the issue has seemed to me like reporting on a war without ever talking to the soldiers. So here's a voice from the inside.
In Rad Decision I cover the good and the bad. (Yes, TMI and Chernobyl). The book is written with the general reader in mind – it covers the people and politics as well as the technology of the industry in a way only someone working inside the security perimeter could do. It is available free online at http://RadDecision.blogspot.com or in paperback at online retailers. There is no corporate sponsorship for this and I get no royalties.
"I'd like to see Rad Decision widely read." – Stewart Brand
Amazing book. I saw S. Brand at the Cal Tech talk last week. Great slide show! Lovelock & Brand say it's too late to stop global warming, but we can lessen the damage by taxing Coal out of use and subsidizing Nuclear like Japan & France.
also notice that there is still no stars in the Whole Earth sky! Actually, there is never any stars in space when images are taken with regular cameras. Not from the Space Station either. Only the the Hubble gives lots of stars in the Hubble images.
They can be on the dark side of a Moon orbit or a Space Station orbit on the dark side of the Earth and they never show stars? What gives?!