Dr. Dana Christensen, Associate Laboratory Director of the Energy and Engineering Sciences Directorate of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, discusses Coming clean: breaking America's addiction to oil and coal by Michael Brune, executive director of Rainforest Action Network. (Recorded June 10, 2009)

 

"Michael Brune is a political activist who has been successful in bringing attention to social/environmental causes," says Dr. Christensen. "His success in gaining agreements from companies such as Home Depot and Lowe’s toward not selling old growth rain forest products is an example of how a small number of citizens can change corporate behaviors when the cause is defensible. Coming clean is his effort to change the purchasing habits of the general citizenry; a much greater challenge than influencing a small number of companies. Indeed, the general citizenry purchase electricity, not the coal used to produce the electricity, thus making the messaging even more difficult. The book represents an attempt to simplify the message about the impact that fossil fuels are having on our environment so that the general public will stand up and listen."

 

Dr. Christensen has twenty-nine years of management experience in material science, nuclear energy, fossil and renewable energy, nuclear materials management and scientific research in support of government agencies and industries.