I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I sat down next to Patrick Moore, one of the co-founders of Greenpeace. Moore and I were at a private dinner hosted by Bayer Environmental Science, a CharlestonOrwig client. He was the guest of honor and would be speaking at a Sustainability Symposium the next day. As the table filled, the seat next to him stayed open. So I grabbed it.

The next two hours were delightful. We talked about his early days as a radical protester who helped put an end to the clubbing of baby seals and open-air nuclear testing. He had pointed opinions about his fellow Greenpeace alum Paul Watson who founded The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and is gaining new-found notoriety with Whale Wars, a hit show on Animal Planet.

Moore thinks nuclear power is required to solve the world’s energy problems, that environmentalists have forgotten science in favor of hyperbole and emotion, that the world may very well be warming and that increasing global temperatures are not necessarily bad.

On Thursday morning a few of Moore’s statements raised eyebrows when he spoke at the symposium. Many others caused heads to nod. Facts and reasoned arguments seem to back up everything he said. Whether you agree with him or not, he sure was an interesting dinner companion and certainly gave a compelling keynote speech.