Pandora's Promise

The documentary describes environmentalists who once opposed nuclear power changing their minds. Stewart Brand, Mark Lynas, Gwyneth Cravens and Michael Shellenberger explain on camera why they switched sides. The case Robert Stone argues is this: nuclear is the only source available at the scale and the constancy needed to stop climate change, and the public's fear of it is out of proportion to the actual risks. The film is a piece of advocacy and does not hide it: not one person from the opposing view speaks. In the Chernobyl section, Helen Caldicott's claim of a million dead is set against the United Nations' Chernobyl Forum report. Critics said the film disposes of renewables too easily and uses footage chosen to make the anti-nuclear campaigners of the seventies look ridiculous. The gap between the figures the film rests on and the figures the other side uses is the argument itself.