Nuclear Free Future – 2012-08-06 16:28:37
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NUCLEAR-FREE FUTURE MONTH: TIME TO PHASE OUT NUCLEAR POWER AND START NEGOTIATIONS ON A TREATY TO BAN THE BOMB!
(August 1, 2012) — August 6th and 9th 2012 will mark the 67th anniversaries of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A year and a half ago, the nuclear disaster at Fukushima once again brought the dangers of nuclear technology to the center of the world’s attention.
However, despite its immense impacts and the continuing risks posed by unstable reactors filled with melted nuclear fuel in a region prone to very large earthquakes, Fukushima already is fading into memory outside Japan. Let us use these August days of remembrance to continue our work during United for Peace and Justice’s Nuclear Free Future Month.
It’s time to end the toxic legacy of the nuclear age and the threats posed by the existence of nuclear weapons and their evil twins, the 440 “peaceful” nuclear reactors desecrating our earth.
Let us use the tragic anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the month of August to expand our circles in order to put our planet on the path to sustainability, ending the nuclear scourge once and for all.
Let us use this month to reach out and dialogue with people and organizations beyond the peace movement and our usual partners, coalitions and friends; to educate, to inspire courage and creativity, to illustrate the steps we can take toward abolition, and to build a powerful constituency for a Nuclear Free Future.
We can have a Nuclear Free World!
Our main vehicle for coordinating activities and disseminating information will be the United for Peace and Justice Nuclear Free Future web pages at www.nuclearfreefuture.org, where you will find a variety of action ideas and educational resources. We encourage you to post your group’s planned activities to the calendar you will find on the home page, and endorse our Call to Action.
Please share your plans for Hiroshima-Nagasaki memorials this August, but please think outside the traditional bounds and plan and share additional educational events, and actions throughout the month.
Nuclear-Free Future Month is an initiative of the United for Peace and Justice Nuclear Disarmament/Redefining Security working group. Please show your support for UFPJ and this effort by making a donation of $25, $50 or $100 (or more)! Click here to donate securely on line.
Or make your check payable to United for Peace and Justice and mail it to PO Box 607, Times Square Station, New York, NY 10017. Please note on the memo line: “Nuclear-Free FutureMonth”.
Call To Action
Endorse the full Call to Action here. And please help us spread the word!
It’s time to end the toxic legacy of the nuclear age and the threats posed by the existence of nuclear weapons and their evil twins, the 440 “peaceful” nuclear reactors desecrating our earth. Each one of these vulnerable reactors is a potential Fukishima waiting to happen, either by force of nature or human error.
Similarly, the estimated 20,000 nuclear bombs on our planet are subject to catastrophic accidental or intentional use. Governments possessing nuclear weapons include the United States and Russia — which together hold 95% of the world’s nuclear arsenal, and France, Britain, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel.
Despite its 42-year commitment under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to negotiate “in good faith” the elimination nuclear weapons, the threat of nuclear weapons use remains at the heart of U.S. “national security” foreign military policy. His nuclear disarmament rhetoric not withstanding, a plan submitted to Congress by President Obama in late 2010 projects an investment of “well over” $185 billion by 2020 to maintain and modernize U.S. nuclear weapons systems.
At a time when many Americans are facing dire economic hardships, spending on nuclear weapons continues to grow. The FY 2013 budget request includes $7.6 billion for programs related to nuclear warheads 00 a 5% increase over 2012 appropriation, while funding for basic services like health care and education have been cut nationwide. This includes increased funding for two new nuclear weapons production plants and a “Life Extension Program” for the B61 warhead, a U.S. bomb still deployed at NATO bases in Europe.
As a step towards implementing President Obama’s commitment to modernize all three legs of the “strategic triad” of nuclear weapons delivery systems, the FY 2013 budget also includes $294 million for research and development of a new Air Force long-range nuclear bomber, $555 million to develop a new replacement ballistic missile submarine and funding to analyze alternatives for replacing existing nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles and air-launched cruise missiles.
All of these programs manifest a commitment to sustain a large, continually modernized nuclear arsenal into the middle of the 21st century and beyond.
Nuclear weapons pose a fundamental threat to humanity and to all life on this planet. As recent studies by climate scientists have shown, a nuclear war involving no more than 100 Hiroshima-sized nuclear weapons — about 0.5% of the global nuclear arsenal — could have catastrophic effects on the global climate leading to a precipitous drop in average surface temperatures, reduction of the ozone layer, and a shortened agricultural growing season resulting in global famine leading to the starvation of up to one billion people.
And, as the human toll of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan have shown us once again, there could be no adequate response to the far larger catastrophe of a nuclear explosion in a city anywhere today. While an earthquake is an act of nature, a nuclear weapon use is a 100% preventable man-made act of hubris.
In an historic November 2011 resolution, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement emphasized “the incalculable human suffering that can be expected to result from any use of nuclear weapons, the lack of any adequate humanitarian response capacity and the absolute imperative to prevent such use;” found it “difficult to envisage how any use of nuclear weapons could be compatible with the rules of international humanitarian law;” and appealed to all States “to pursue in good faith and conclude with urgency and determination negotiations to prohibit the use of and completely eliminate nuclear weapons through a legally binding international agreement.”
Let us work in the coming month to promote a nuclear free future in our lifetime. As the Abolition 2000 Network noted in its 1995 founding statement: “The inextricable link between the ‘peaceful’ and warlike uses of nuclear technologies and the threat to future generations inherent in creation and use of long-lived radioactive materials must be recognized.
We must move toward reliance on clean, safe, renewable forms of energy production that do not provide the materials for weapons of mass destruction and do not poison the environment for thousands of centuries. The true ‘inalienable’ right is not to nuclear energy, but to life, liberty and security of person in a world free of nuclear weapons.”
Polls have indicated that 76% of the American public supports the abolition of nuclear weapons, but too many people have little or no knowledge of the lack of progress toward that goal or of steps they can take that will help make abolition a reality. And only 43 percent of those polled after the failure of the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan said they would approve building such new facilities in the United States to generate electricity – a steep decline from the 57 percent who said in 2008 that they approved of new plants.
Let us use the tragic anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the month of August to expand our circles in order to put our planet on the path to sustainability, ending the nuclear scourge once and for all.
Let us use this month to reach out and dialogue with people and organizations beyond the peace movement and our usual partners, coalitions and friends; to educate, to inspire courage and creativity, to illustrate the steps we can take toward abolition, and to build a powerful constituency for a Nuclear Free Future.
Our main vehicle for coordinating activities and disseminating information will be the United for Peace and Justice Nuclear Free Future web pages at www.nuclearfreefuture.org, where you will find a variety of action ideas and educational resources. We encourage you to post your group’s planned activities to the calendar you will find there.
Please share your plans for Hiroshima-Nagasaki memorials this August, but please think outside the traditional bounds and plan and share additional educational events, and actions throughout the month. Please help us spread the word!
ENDORSE THE CALL
This call was initiated by the United for Peace and Justice Nuclear Disarmament/Redefining Security Working Group. We invite other groups to endorse this Call and participate in Nuclear Free Future Month. You can sign on at www.nuclearfreefuture.org/endorse/; you can circulate the Call among progressive organizations in your community; you can connect with others who are organizing against the war machine. Seek peace, be part of the solution. No Nukes! No Wars!
JOIN THE PLANNING GROUP
Groups planning Nuclear-Free Future month through the United for Peace and Justice Nuclear Disarmament/Redefining Security Working Group include the following.
American Friends Service Committee
Global Network Against Nuclear Power & Weapons in Space
Greater New Haven Peace Council
Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy
Nevada Desert Experience
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Western States Legal Foundation
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
Peace Action
If you’d like to get involved please send an e-mail message to Jackie Cabasso, working group convener: wslf@earthlink.net
MAKE A DONATION or VOLUNTEER YOUR TIME!
Please consider joining these groups by making a donation of $25, $50 or $100 (or more!) to support the Nuclear Free Future Month website and related resources. Or volunteer your time and skills. Donate online or make your check payable to United for Peace and Justice and mail it to PO Box 607, Times Square Station, New York, NY 10017. Be sure to note on the memo line: “Nuclear-Free Future Month”.
Jacqueline Cabasso Executive Director Western States Legal Foundation www.wslfweb.org www.disarmamentactivist.org 510-839-5877
