nuclear safety

Whole Earth Discipline ch. 3-4

1. What technological innovation in the developing world is "connecting every stratum of society"? How does it address old worries about a "digital divide"?

2. Who, 40+ years ago, predicted an explosive population problem leading to mass starvation and coercive governmental mandates? Who did his "nemesis" say about a "demographic transition"? What was Limits to Growth? How did "urbanizaiton defuse the population bomb"?

3. What population policy does Brand now advocate? Why are birthrates still relatively high in France and the U.S.?

4. What does "walkability" contribute to a community? How is Manhattan green? What are the greenest U.S. cities? What are "Alabaster Cities"? What are examples of green infrastructure?

5. What does "cosmopolitan" mean?

6.What has been James Hansen's major contribution to the climate debate? What's been his position on nuclear power?

7. What's the goal of the Long Now Foundation? Why does Brand now consider long-term planning "folly"? What seems to be his current view of the"'seven generations' approach to future responsibility long credited to the Iroquois League"?

8. What does Brand quote Lovelock saying about dangers to civilization greater than nuclear accident?

9. What kind of environmentalists does Brand say Al Gore and Bill McKibben will be in coming years, with respect to nuclear energy? What's the new generation gap?

10. What are the "four great problems" and how does Brand now think of them?

11. What did Roger Revelle say about how we should emulate the Japanese nuclear policy?

(Also in ch.4: the comparative safety risk from coal, electricity, gasoline, natural gas, hydrogen, radiation, fear;  Bhopal; "Chernobyl National Park"; hormesis; natural carcinogens; overspending on nuclear cleanup; Amory Lovins; wind & solar; Lovelock on nuclear waste; nuclear terror; GNEP...)