Environmental Heresies

Stewart Brand is big in the online world. He's the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, author of How Buildings Learn, a futurist, social commentator, and critical player at all-around cool ambiguous places including the Long Now Foundation and the Santa Fe Institute. Today he has the blogosphere's collective panties in a twist with his article in the May issue of the MIT Technology Review because he's promoting nuclear power for the sake of the environment. He's too smart to ignore. Enjoy:

Environmental Heresies: "...The success of the environmental movement is driven by two powerful forces--romanticism and science--that are often in opposition. The romantics identify with natural systems; the scientists study natural systems. The romantics are moralistic, rebellious against the perceived dominant power, and combative against any who appear to stray from the true path. They hate to admit mistakes or change direction. The scientists are ethicalistic, rebellious against any perceived dominant paradigm, and combative against each other. For them, admitting mistakes is what science is.

There are a great many more environmental romantics than there are scientists. That's fortunate, since their inspiration means that most people in developed societies see themselves as environmentalists. But it also means that scientific perceptions are always a minority view, easily ignored, suppressed, or demonized if they don't fit the consensus story line. [...]"