BOOK PROPOSAL: The Earthrise Accord

BOOK PROPOSAL

Title: The Earthrise Accord: Nuclear Realism and Climate Justice

Author: Eric W. Anders, Ph.D., Psy.D.

1. Overview

The Earthrise Accord: Nuclear Realism and Climate Justice is a bold, interdisciplinary manifesto that challenges the moral and political narratives shaping climate policy. Drawing on history, law, psychoanalysis, and environmental justice, the book introduces the concept of nuclear realism—a truth-centered framework for confronting fossil fuel deception and reclaiming nuclear power as a tool of reparative justice.

The project takes its name and moral bearing from the Earthrise photograph taken by the author’s father, Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders. That image captured Earth’s fragility and unity from space and inspired the original environmental movement. In contrast, today’s climate discourse has become fragmented and ineffective—paralyzed by false binaries, corrupted by disinformation, and haunted by psychological defenses that prioritize ideological purity over planetary survival.

This book exposes the fossil fuel industry’s dual misinformation campaigns—climate denial and nuclear fearmongering—and proposes an actionable legal and ethical response: Clean Energy Reparations. It offers a new strategic foundation for climate litigation, one that includes the suppression of viable solutions (especially nuclear energy) as a form of culpable negligence. The argument culminates in a visionary proposal for a transnational legal framework—The Earthrise Accord—to reclaim truth, accountability, and energy sovereignty in the climate fight.

2. Detailed Table of Contents

Introduction: What Is the Earthrise Accord?

The Earthrise image as ethical catalyst.Recounting the legacy of William Anders and how that image frames the mission of the Earthrise Accord.Three interlinked aims:

• Reparations for climate harms

• Restoration through clean energy justice

• Reframing the moral narrative around nuclear power and truth-telling

Chapter 1: Nuclear Realism – Reframing the Energy Debate in an Age of Climate Crisis

Based on the author's viral blog post, this chapter deconstructs the false binary of “renewables vs. nuclear,” revealing how both fossil fuel companies and legacy environmental organizations benefited from nuclear disinformation. A psychoanalytic reading of purity politics and repression shows why anti-nuclear narratives persist as recycled fantasies.

Chapter 2: California v. Big Oil – The Right Battle, the Wrong Frame

California’s recent climate lawsuit is historic, but incomplete. This chapter critiques its refusal to include decades of anti-nuclear deception as part of the fossil fuel industry's culpability. It offers a revised legal framework that broadens liability and introduces the concept of Clean Energy Reparations.

Chapter 3: Maldives v. Big Oil – Ecocide, Desecration, and the Struggle for Survival

The Maldives exemplifies the disproportionate harms inflicted on the global South by carbon emissions from the North. This chapter explores legal avenues at the ICC for prosecuting ecocide and proposes a model partnership between vulnerable nations and nuclear-enabled adaptation infrastructure.

Chapter 4: Fossil Colonialism – The Petrostate Problem

Why petro-states—from autocracies like Saudi Arabia to “green” democracies like Norway—are central obstacles to energy justice. The myth of benevolent extraction and the exclusion of nuclear from climate aid strategies are framed as a new form of colonialism.

Chapter 5: The Double Lie – Climate Denial and Nuclear Misinformation

Documents the historical record of fossil fuel-funded anti-nuclear propaganda. Traces how psychological mechanisms like fetishism and disavowal allowed environmentalists to absorb and recycle fossil narratives, becoming complicit in the broader campaign of inaction.

Chapter 6: Legal Pathways – From Misinformation to Accountability

Introduces legal innovations that treat the suppression of nuclear energy as a form of actionable deception. Outlines viable paths:

• ICC for ecocide

• Civil fraud and public nuisance litigation

• Regulatory reform

• Model statutes for Clean Energy Reparations

Chapter 7: Clean Energy Reparations – A Framework for Justice

Defines this new form of climate justice: redirecting fossil fuel wealth to fund clean energy transitions—especially nuclear—where harm has been greatest. Explores case studies, including U.S. frontline communities and African nations burdened by anti-nuclear foreign aid.

Chapter 8: Earthrise Futures – A New Politics of Energy and Truth

From despair to action: why a new moral and political narrative—rooted in truth, not tribalism—is essential. Describes Earthrise Accord’s future as a legal, cultural, and civilizational movement. Invites jurists, scientists, artists, and citizens to join.

Appendices

• Glossary of Key Concepts

• Legal Roadmap for Clean Energy Reparations

• Timeline of Nuclear Misinformation

• Model Treaty Language

• Bibliography

3. Market and Audience

This book is aimed at a growing audience of environmentally concerned readers who are disillusioned with mainstream environmental orthodoxy. It targets three key groups:

• Climate justice activists seeking deeper, reparative frameworks for accountability.

• Energy policy professionals open to reassessing nuclear energy in light of fossil phaseout urgency.

• Scholars and students in environmental law, international relations, science & technology studies, and political theory.

It will also resonate with readers of:

• James Hansen’s Storms of My Grandchildren

• Michael Shellenberger’s Apocalypse Never (but with a more ethically rigorous and less libertarian frame)

• Naomi Oreskes & Erik Conway’s Merchants of Doubt

• Amitav Ghosh’s The Nutmeg’s Curse (in its postcolonial framing of climate injustice)

4. Comparable Titles

Title	Author	Publisher	Relevance
Merchants of Doubt	Oreskes & Conway	Bloomsbury	Exposé of fossil misinformation, but lacks legal strategy or nuclear discussion.
Apocalypse Never	Shellenberger	Harper	Pro-nuclear, contrarian, but often polemical and weak on justice.
The Ministry for the Future	Kim Stanley Robinson	Orbit	Fiction, but introduces reparations and nuclear adaptation ideas.
Storms of My Grandchildren	James Hansen	Bloomsbury	Climate science and pro-nuclear realism, no legal dimension.
What We Owe the Future	William MacAskill	Basic Books	Long-termist ethics, lacks energy realism or legal tools.

5. Author Biography

Eric W. Anders, Ph.D., Psy.D. is a senior psychoanalyst, retired clinician, and academic. Former editor of The Undecidable Unconscious, he is the founder of Earthrise Accord, a climate justice nonprofit inspired by his late father, Apollo 8 astronaut and Earthrise photographer William Anders. His work synthesizes legal reasoning, psychological insight, and environmental realism to forge new approaches to global justice. The Earthrise Accord: Nuclear Realism and Climate Justice is the culmination of decades of psychoanalytic and political thinking, brought to bear on the climate emergency.

6. Platform and Promotion

The author maintains an active blog and social media presence through www.earthriseaccord.org, and has cultivated relationships with pro-nuclear scientists, legal scholars, and climate journalists. Planned promotion includes:

• Serialized excerpts on Earthrise blog and Substack

• Public interviews with pro-nuclear advocates and climate justice leaders

• Speaking engagements at climate and law conferences

• Coordination with aligned legal NGOs for media campaigns around litigation strategy

• Cross-promotion with the Earthrise Journal and forthcoming Earthrise Institute initiatives

7. Specifications

• Manuscript status: 20% complete (proposal, outline, draft chapters)

• Estimated length: ~85,000 words

• Illustrations: Possible inclusion of visualizations, archival materials, and Earthrise images

• Preferred publisher: University of Washington Press, MIT Press, Columbia University Press, or Routledge