A positive view that may change some minds.
Nuclear power seems to be returning to favor.
After a quick account of the Manhattan Project, journalist Visscher recounts the enthusiasm for peaceful uses of atomic energy, which peaked in the post–World War II decades before encountering challenges. At first, the possibility of nuclear war preoccupied everyone; activists denounced the bomb and radioactive nuclear fallout. Few attacked nuclear power, which advocates claimed would bring about a golden age of cheap electricity. By the 1970s, it produced electricity as cheaply as fossil fuels. Atmospheric testing stopped, but activist attention continued to focus on radiation—deadly, yet invisible. The result was an avalanche of safety regulations that made nuclear power more expensive than conventional power. Then came the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, and by 2000 nuclear power became—often literally—a cartoon epitome of evil technology. Now, in the 21st century, with a major contributor to global warming being greenhouse gases pouring from fossil fuel–burning power plants, the solution is clean energy—essentially solar and wind power, which are now practical and cheap. These fall silent, of course, in the absence of sun and wind. Two major power sources can fill in the gaps: fossil fuel and nuclear. Convinced that atomic power spreads poison, most activists remain opposed. Polls show that people generally support nuclear power, but opponents, far more fierce, attract more media attention. Visscher argues that opposition to nuclear power is often as irrational as the logic of anti-vaxxers, that fossil fuel power plant emissions cause more disease and death than nuclear, and that today’s nuclear plants are pretty safe. It’s a cliché that facts rarely change a person’s firm beliefs, but Visscher is generous with facts, and nuclear power is undergoing a modest revival.
A positive view that may change some minds.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781399419079
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Bloomsbury Sigma
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
A straightforward, carefully detailed presentation of how ``fruit comes from flowers,'' from winter's snow-covered buds through pollination and growth to ripening and harvest. Like the text, the illustrations are admirably clear and attractive, including the larger-than-life depiction of the parts of the flower at different stages. An excellent contribution to the solidly useful ``Let's-Read-and-Find-Out-Science'' series. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 4-9)
Pub Date: Jan. 30, 1992
ISBN: 0-06-020055-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1991
Yes: it's high time for a de-romanticized, de-mythified, close-up retelling of the U.S. Space Program's launching—the inside story of those first seven astronauts.
But no: jazzy, jivey, exclamation-pointed, italicized Tom Wolfe "Mr. Overkill" hasn't really got the fight stuff for the job. Admittedly, he covers all the ground. He begins with the competitive, macho world of test pilots from which the astronauts came (thus being grossly overqualified to just sit in a controlled capsule); he follows the choosing of the Seven, the preparations for space flight, the flights themselves, the feelings of the wives; and he presents the breathless press coverage, the sudden celebrity, the glorification. He even throws in some of the technology. But instead of replacing the heroic standard version with the ring of truth, Wolfe merely offers an alternative myth: a surreal, satiric, often cartoony Wolfe-arama that, especially since there isn't a bit of documentation along the way, has one constantly wondering if anything really happened the way Wolfe tells it. His astronauts (referred to as "the brethren" or "The True Brothers") are obsessed with having the "right stuff" that certain blend of guts and smarts that spells pilot success. The Press is a ravenous fool, always referred to as "the eternal Victorian Gent": when Walter Cronkite's voice breaks while reporting a possible astronaut death, "There was the Press the Genteel Gent, coming up with the appropriate emotion. . . live. . . with no prompting whatsoever!" And, most off-puttingly, Wolfe presumes to enter the minds of one and all: he's with near-drowing Gus Grissom ("Cox. . . That face up there!—it's Cox. . . Cox knew how to get people out of here! . . . Cox! . . ."); he's with Betty Grissom angry about not staying at Holiday Inn ("Now. . . they truly owed her"); and, in a crude hatchet-job, he's with John Glenn furious at Al Shepard's being chosen for the first flight, pontificating to the others about their licentious behavior, or holding onto his self-image during his flight ("Oh, yes! I've been here before! And I am immune! I don't get into corners I can't get out of! . . . The Presbyterian Pilot was not about to foul up. His pipeline to dear Lord could not be clearer"). Certainly there's much here that Wolfe is quite right about, much that people will be interested in hearing: the P-R whitewash of Grissom's foul-up, the Life magazine excesses, the inter-astronaut tensions. And, for those who want to give Wolfe the benefit of the doubt throughout, there are emotional reconstructions that are juicily shrill.
But most readers outside the slick urban Wolfe orbit will find credibility fatally undermined by the self-indulgent digressions, the stylistic excesses, and the broadly satiric, anti-All-American stance; and, though The Right Stuff has enough energy, sass, and dirt to attract an audience, it mostly suggests that until Wolfe can put his subject first and his preening writing-persona second, he probably won't be a convincing chronicler of anything much weightier than radical chic.
Pub Date: Sept. 24, 1979
ISBN: 0312427565
Page Count: 370
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1979
BOOK TO SCREEN
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