Posted Wed, 09/18/2013 – 14:44
From the Pandora’s Promise web site: “Impact Partners and CNN Films present PANDORA’S PROMISE, the groundbreaking new film by Academy-Award®-nominated director Robert Stone. The atomic bomb and meltdowns like Fukushima have made nuclear power synonymous with global disaster. But what if we’ve got nuclear power wrong? An audience favorite at the Sundance Film Festival, PANDORA’S PROMISE asks whether the one technology we fear most could save our planet from a climate catastrophe, while providing the energy needed to lift billions of people in the developing world out of poverty. In his controversial new film, Stone tells the intensely personal stories of environmentalists and energy experts who have undergone a radical conversion from being fiercely anti to strongly pro-nuclear energy, risking their careers and reputations in the process. Stone exposes this controversy within the environmental movement head-on with stories of defection by heavy weights including Stewart Brand, Richard Rhodes, Gwyneth Cravens, Mark Lynas and Michael Shellenberger. Undaunted and fearlessly independent, PANDORA’S PROMISE is a landmark work that is forever changing the conversation about the myths and science behind this deeply emotional and polarizing issue.”
This film will be shown at the Roxy Theatre in Saskatoon, 320 20th Street West at 7:00 PM, followed by a panel discussion featuring Dr. Gordon Edwards, President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, Dr. Jim Harding, Retired Professor of Justice Studies at the University of Regina and author of “CANADA’S DEADLY SECRET Saskatchewan Uranium and the Global Nuclear System”, and Heather Kleb, Interim President & Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Nuclear Association.
From the Globe and Mail: Pandora’s Promise: Is nuclear energy really the only way to save the planet? Published Friday, Jul. 12 2013, 12:00 AM EDT
“Could going green really be the same as going nuclear? That’s the argument presented in this nuclear energy advocacy documentary from Robert Stone (Earth Days), which suggests the public’s knee-jerk fear of nuclear energy is naive and risks derailing our best hope for preventing an environmental catastrophe.
While the idea is provocative, especially in the aftermath of Japan’s post-tsunami Fukushima disaster in 2011, the movie’s focus is narrow. The five nuclear converts surveyed are journalist-authors who all seem to have reached identical conclusions: There’s Richard Rhodes (“To be anti-nuclear is basically to be in favour of burning fossil fuels”), Gwyneth Cravens, Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, Mark Lynas (author Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet) and Michael Shellenberger, of the pro-nuclear environmental group Breakthrough Institute. Also interviewed is scientist Dr. Charles Till, co-developer of the Integral Fast Reactor, which purports to be both accident-free and capable of recycling waste material.
The film’s tone is boosterish, and the cursory treatment of the cost of a nuclear-based energy overhaul, or the viability of renewable energy, tends to arouse skepticism rather than allay it. Opposing voices are limited to vintage clips of anti-nuclear protesters and one gotcha confrontation with septuagenarian anti-nuclear crusader Dr. Helen Caldicott, and that supports the impression that Pandora’s Promise is less an exploration of the subject than a well-constructed sales pitch.”
From Beyond Nuclear: “The impetus for this two-page summary document and the full report referenced above, was the release in July 2013 of the pro-nuclear propaganda film, Pandora’s Promise. The film, like the nuclear industry propaganda in circulation generally, both omits and misrepresents key facts in order to cover up the very real dangers and detriments of nuclear energy. These documents serve to rebut the misleading messaging about dirty, dangerous and expensive nuclear power.”