Pandora’s Promise, a new documentary by filmmaker Robert Stone, takes a look at nuclear power as a possible player in the mix of technologies we’ll need to meet energy demand without pushing atmospheric CO2 beyond safe levels. Long Now co-founder Stewart Brand and other former SALT speakers Mark Lynas, Gwyneth Cravens and Richard Rhodes are interviewed in the film.
Pandora’s Promise premiers in San Francisco (and in many other locations) on Friday June 14th. The 7:25 showing that evening will conclude with a Q&A session with Director Robert Stone and Stewart Brand.
Long Now Associate (and Laughing Squid blogger) Mikl Em got a chance to see an early screening of the film and says:
Pandora’s Promise is full of surprising revelations: from seeing Maggie Thatcher speak presciently in 1989 about the coming danger of CO2 levels to watching John Kerry proudly championing the shuttering of a scientifically exemplary nuclear power research facility. Veteran documentary filmmaker Robert Stone presents firsthand accounts from five high-profile environmentalists including Stewart Brand, who all now urge reexamination of the case for nuclear power. It’s a reminder to everyone that first instinct are not always right, that facts should be valued over pride, that popular momentum has no taste for subtleties, and that we need to get to work to fix our energy problems.
In support of long-term thinking, Long Now seeks to consider solutions to climate change and other long-term issues, but to leave advocacy of particular solutions to policy makers and activists. Brand and the others speak for themselves in Pandora’s Promise, not for Long Now. Nuclear power, whether one supports it or not, represents an issue that spans generations and deserves a serious long-term dialogue.
