After a busy first day, Gen A and Young Generation Network volunteers spread the word on nuclear at Day 2.
“What’s the first thing that comes into your head when you hear the word ‘nuclear’?”
Surprisingly, when you ask that question of many delegates at COP26, the answer isn’t as negative as you might imagine.
As the blue-clad team of nuclear volunteers spread throughout the Blue Zone, we engaged delegates by handing out stickered bananas (occasionally in banana costume), talking to them and recording brief video vox pop clips and uploading them to social media with the hashtag #MyNuclearReaction.
Overall, we’ve found that many reactions are positive, with few overall negative comments — most people are willing to learn more about nuclear, and are surprised to find that most of their caveats about matters such as safety, waste management and disposal, and many others have already been answered.
The booth and Bella the bear (Hall 4, Pavilion 68, just behind Brazil’s pavilion, if you’re interested in coming to visit us) has generated a huge amount of interest from those walking by, with fantastic take-up of our fact-packed information materials.
Meanwhile, other team members have been attending the many side events running in the Blue Zone, making sure to ask questions of the speakers and that nuclear’s voice is heard.
More exciting actions are planned at COP26 this week — watch this space!
David de Caires Watson attended a UN WHO event on air pollution. The focus was on the importance of exiting from coal, so David was frustrated when the panellists avoided his question:
“If coal is deadly, and exiting coal is paramount for reducing air pollution, what do you think about countries like Germany that are phasing out nuclear but keeping their coal?”
Many public figures — even air pollution experts — seem scared to speak the truth about the deadliness of coal compared to nuclear.
One of our favourite factoids for Day 2 was that COP26 was 71% powered by nuclear yesterday! This one surprises the delegates, who haven’t heard anything about the source of Glasgow’s low-carbon electricity.
Spotted at COP: movie stars and climate actors
Some of the major names spotted yesterday included — yes, you guessed it — Greta Thunberg. After trying to locate her in the Green Zone on Tuesday, with no luck, we thought we spotted her today in the Blue Zone (though keeping a low profile, with a fishing hat pulled down low). Well, we think it was her, anyway.
Others were star-struck by the appearance of Leonardo Di Caprio, walking down the ‘main street’ of the SEC and looking (according to those who saw him) ‘like a million dollars’ (well, what do you expect of Hollywood royalty?).
Al Gore was also spotted in the Action Zone (which, despite its name, was curiously quiet), as was Ed Miliband, the UK’s Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy. One of our members decided to engage him on the subject of nuclear, but sadly she was rebuffed as he was too busy. But hey, he’s said some nice things about nuclear in the past, so we’ll forgive him.
We’re already busy at Day 3 of COP — more on how we got on tomorrow!
