Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Category: International Issues

  • Remembering Castle Bravo 69 Years Later

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    Castle Bravo Blast (Public Domain)

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    Castle Bravo is the largest nuclear weapon test the United States (US) ever conducted. It was a seminal event in the nuclear testing history of the Marshall Islands. It is also part of a shameful legacy for those of us who consider ourselves American. Today, the Marshallese people in the Marshall Islands and in diaspora, remember and commemorate Castle Bravo, an event that must never be forgotten.

    The Bravo explosion took place on March 1, 1954 in the northern part of Bikini Atoll, one of 29 coral atolls in the Marshall Islands. The explosion yielded the energy equivalent of 15 Megatons (or about 33 billion pounds) of TNT, or 1000 Hiroshima bombs. The blast evaporated an island, forming a deep crater in the Bikini lagoon. The resulting mushroom cloud reached a height of 25 miles into the atmosphere and spread radioactive fallout throughout the atoll, across other Marshallese atolls, and around the world. For decades, the US government has claimed that Bravo was an accident, both because it was more powerful than expected and because the winds had changed, leading to significant radiation fallout on populated atolls, like Rongelap. Recently declassified documents suggest that the claims of an accident are not truthful (see for example here, courtesy of late Bill Graham via Giff Johnson).

    Two communities have arguably been the most affected by Bravo: the Bikinians, who had moved out of their atoll in February of 1946 to make room for the US nuclear testing program, and the Rongelapese, who were living on the lush Rongelap Island, a mere 100 miles away, on that fateful day when radioactive fallout blanketed their islands and lagoon like snow. One could make the case that it is thanks to Bravo that Bikinians cannot return to live in their home islands more than 77 years after the US nuclear testing began. For the people of Rongelap, who similarly remain refugees in their own country, the loss of their land and culture is part of their history of suffering, which includes physical and mental health impacts stemming from the exposure to radiation in the aftermath of the Bravo test. By nightfall, many in the community, children in particular, were gravely ill with radiation poisoning. They were not evacuated until three days later and remain in exile nearly 69 years after Bravo.

    It’s not that people haven’t tried to return home. After the testing program ended in 1958, the people of Bikini slowly attempted to reoccupy their lands in the late 1960s, only to leave again in 1978, when it became clear that staying meant continued exposure to large and unacceptable doses of radiation. Measurements made from 2015-2018 by a Columbia University research team that I was a part of suggest that Bikini is still not ready to permanently host a multigenerational community, absent an extensive cleanup effort. Note that I stress the word “permanent;” a brief visit to Bikini is fine, but living there 24/7, 365 days a year for many years, is not. Moreover, given that radiation impacts people differently by age and possibly even sex, resettlement of a community that includes young children and pregnant women can only follow a careful decontamination program. Hence the emphasis on the word multigenerational.

    The situation is a bit more complicated in Rongelap Atoll, where our team found that radiological contamination on Rongelap Island, where people previously lived, has been largely, if not entirely, contained. But we also found disturbing evidence of high levels of external gamma radiation and high levels of plutonium in the soil in Naen, an island in the north of the Rongelap Atoll. Although the Rongelapese did not traditionally use Naen for their living quarters, they did use it – and other islands throughout the atoll – as a pantry island, where they collected food. The conditions in Naen and in other islands of the atoll need to be far better understood and potentially addressed, before a permanent and multigenerational community could return to Rongelap.

    The focus here on Bikini and Rongelap is not to say that other atolls were not affected, just that these may have been the most affected. At the time of Bravo, people were also living in Alluk, Likiep, Utirik, and throughout the Marshall Islands. A comprehensive survey of current radiological conditions is desperately needed for the entire country, with an emphasis on atolls closest to the former testing sites. In 2017, the Columbia team was able to visit Utirik and we found little to no evidence of elevated levels of radiation. This is encouraging, although not definitive, as our measurements were limited in scope and number.

    The Marshall Islands suffered 67 nuclear tests, which corresponded to 55% of the total energy yield of all US nuclear weapon tests. Bravo was the largest and the most devastating due to the fallout spread, but there were many other large (hydrogen bomb) tests. Several actually took place in the same part of the Bikini lagoon as Bravo, leading to a complex crater that today has a depth of ~50 m, and according to two Columbia studies, hosts a variety of radioactive contaminants (see here and here). The ocean is filling in this crater at a rate of about one foot per year (or one meter every three years), as if it knows that it must treat its own scars, with people seemingly not ready to heal them.

    The legacy of Bravo must not be forgotten. Indeed, it must be recognized, understood, and properly addressed.

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  • NAPF President Speaks on Ekotürk with Feyza Gümüşlüoğlu, Nükleer bir savaş kapıda mı?

    Recently, NAPF President, Dr. Ivana Nikolić Hughes, spoke with Feyza Gumusluoglu on Turkish television, Ekoturk, discussing issues ranging from the dangers of a nuclear arms buildup to the existential apocalyptic aftermath of a nuclear winter. We invite everyone to listen as Dr. Hughes navigates the importance of eliminating nuclear weapons as an urgent international concern, especially from energy, security, humanitarian, and environmental standpoints that we must inevitably confront.

  • It is 90 seconds till midnight

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    Yesterday, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a pre-eminent organization founded in 1945 with the goal to publish and pronounce upon the dangers of the nuclear arms race, and more recently other existential threats, such as climate change, announced their latest Doomsday Clock reading. The clock’s history dates back to 1947, when the Bulletin asked the artist Martyl Langsdorf to create a cover for the magazine; Langsdorf proceeded to draw a picture of a clock, with its hands at seven minutes till midnight. Her choice of image was meant to reflect the urgency of the moment and the fact that very little time was left to prevent a human-made global catastrophe before it happened. By 1949, the Bulletin started using the image yearly to ascertain the current state of global affairs and to indicate whether things have indeed gotten better or worse compared to the previous year and compared to all of the prior clock readings. Along the way, the Doomsday Clock became a symbol of all that is wrong in today’s world and a widely anticipated gauge of global risks and threats.

    Since 1949, the minute hand of the clock has been changed 24 times, reaching 17 minutes to midnight or the farthest from midnight in 1991, at the end of the Cold War. Prior to 2020, the closest setting was two minutes till midnight during the time period of 1953 to 1959, when both the United States and the Soviet Union not only acquired but widely tested hydrogen bombs. Hydrogen bombs, by using fusion, the process that powers the Sun and the stars, instead of just fission, increased the energy yield and destructiveness of nuclear weapons by orders of magnitude. The United States tested – in the Marshall Islands and Kiribati – bombs that were up to 1000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, while the Soviets tested hydrogen bombs that reached up to 50 Mtons or the equivalent of more than 3300 Hiroshima bombs. Most of those ultra high yield tests were conducted near Severny Island in the Arctic, with some taking place at the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan.

    In January 2020, just as the COVID pandemic was gaining speed, the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board set the clock at 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it had ever been, to reflect the deteriorating global security environment, as well as the accelerating impacts of global warming and the lack of meaningful progress on addressing climate change. The clock reading was unchanged in 2021 and 2022 and when the Ukraine War started last February, many began to wonder how the new and increased risk of nuclear exchange or worse would affect future clock readings. So like thousands of others, I was glued to my screen yesterday morning, anticipating with some trepidation what time the Bulletin experts would set for this year. The clock hands – clearly – do not impact the situation on the ground in Ukraine or globally, but I did have the sense that the reading would reflect the urgency of the moment, as it has for decades. Confronting this urgency in such a direct way did make me anxious.

    When Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, and others unveiled the clock to reveal 90 seconds till midnight, I breathed a sigh of relief. Yes, 90 seconds to midnight is awfully close and the closest the clock has ever been. I fully agree with this assessment, as the Ukraine War has undoubtedly increased the risk of use of nuclear weapons, which was already unacceptably high, while also causing other global problems and exposing our global interdependency. So I agree that we are worse off today than we have ever been. For those who discount the dangers, I would quote Prof. Marty Hellman from Stanford University, who says that “those who discount the risk of nuclear war stemming from the war in Ukraine are probably right, but probably is not good enough when our nation’s survival is at stake.” To this, I would add that nuclear war does not threaten just our nation and other individual countries, but human civilization as we know it and possibly the human species and other life on the planet. Assessing the risk as the highest it has ever been, seems right on the mark to me.

    My relief at hearing and seeing 90 seconds till midnight was due to the fact that I could have imagined an even closer reading of say, one minute till midnight. I believe that 90 seconds is a better assessment as it reflects the numerous opportunities to make things better. Coming out of a worldwide pandemic, we should be better prepared to confront future pandemics individually and within our communities and societies. Global warming is having such visible impacts around the planet (I write this from New York City where we have yet to have our first snowfall of the 2022/2023 winter season) that denial is no longer even a viable strategy and optimism about the shift to renewables in places like China and India does not strike me as premature. Finally, the Ukraine War has at last woken many people up to the continued dangers of nuclear weapons, dangers they seemed to have put aside after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Those dangers in fact never went away and the hope is that by allowing the whole world to see them for what they are, we can finally reach the decades-long aspirations of nuclear abolition.

    This brings me to my favorite point about why there is reason for hope. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) has now been in force for two years (we just celebrated its second anniversary on January 22), has 68 ratifications and 92 signatory states, and both lists of states continue to grow. I was fortunate to attend and participate in the First Meeting of States Parties last June in Vienna where I could soak in the optimism and the excitement of diplomats, civil society, academics, and youth, all working together to bring the promises of this historic treaty to reality. We at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation are hard at work on promoting, strengthening, and implementing the TPNW and are convinced that the treaty is our best hope for leaving a world free of nuclear weapons to our children. We must do everything we can to see it accomplish all of its objectives. After all, we only have 90 seconds to do so.

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  • Our statements at the UN Open-ended working group on ICTs

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    This week, the Open-Ended Working Group on Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) has been meeting to discuss critical issues on security and use of (ICTs). These meetings are part of an agenda set out in 2021 and aimed at putting security and ICT issues at the forefront of international discussions and agreements. See more information about these meetings HERE.

    We are very proud that two of our current interns, Joey Holzman, who is a student at Drew University, and Annamaria Belevitch, who is a student at Columbia University, contributed statements for this meeting on behalf of NAPF. Joey delivered his statement in person on Tuesday, December 6 and Annamaria delivered her statement on Wednesday, December 7. Joey’s statement focuses on the importance of including young people in ICT and security conversations, whereas Annamaria’s statement focuses on the relevance of international law to these discussions.

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    Watch Joey’s statement below.

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    Watch and read Annamaria’s statement below.

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    Please join us in congratulating Joey and Annamaria on a job well done!

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  • Richard Falk’s book This Endangered Planet (1971) honored by Foreign Affairs

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    We are thrilled to share that This Endangered Planet: Prospects and Proposals for Human Survival (1971) by Richard Falk, our Senior Vice President, has been selected as a Book for the Century (Political and Legal) on the occasion of the centennial issue of the magazine Foreign Affairs, issued by the Council on Foreign Relations. Richard’s book is part of a set considered “essential for understanding the century ahead.” The reviewers highlighted Richard’s use of terms such as “limits to growth” and “spaceship earth,” calling the book “evocative and illuminating.” In the book, Richard calls “for a revolution in consciousness that would reimagine how peoples and societies could organize themselves for sustainable life.” See the full review HERE and join us in congratulating Richard!

    To celebrate this enormous honor and to revisit the topics Richard discussed in the book more than 50 years ago, our President Ivana Nikolić Hughes and Richard will meet in conversation as part of our Nuclear Dangers series. Details will be announced shortly!

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  • President’s Letter: August 2022

    Dear NAPF Community,

    It is with a great sense of excitement that I greet you following my first month as NAPF’s President. Coincidentally, August 1 turned out to be three things: 1. My first official day in this position; 2. The first day of the 10th Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Conference at the United Nations (UN) in New York City; and 3. My daughter’s (oldest of three children) 21st birthday. And thus the day marked a new phase in my own personal and professional life, but also in the nuclear disarmament sphere more generally. Meeting both NGO colleagues and diplomats that first week, I kept saying in jest that my hope was that the failure or success of the conference would not be a reflection on my own path at NAPF.

    Attending the conference was truly an emotional rollercoaster. That first day, I was elated hearing from the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, whose brilliant statement will surely provide no shortage of quotes on the urgency, necessity, and imperative of nuclear disarmament. From saying that humanity is “one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation,” to warning that, “luck is not a strategy,” Secretary General expressed deep commitment to nuclear abolition and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). In fact, Secretary General left the conference after his remarks to board a plane to Japan, where he was to visit Hiroshima on August 6, the 77thanniversary of the atomic bombing. His dedication to the cause was apparent from both his words and his actions.

    But the first day wasn’t all wonderful. I got to watch the United States (US) Secretary of State Anthony Blinken state that “The United States would only (emphasis mine) use nuclear weapons under extreme circumstances,” a position I find morally and ethically repugnant. In my opinion, no circumstances would justify incinerating and sickening civilians by the thousands or millions, while putting all of humanity at risk of starvation following use of even a fraction of today’s nuclear arsenals. The remainder of the week featured statements by individual states or groups of states, and I would single out the statements made by Austria, the Holy See, and South Africa, as models for how countries should be thinking about the NPT and its disarmament provisions. Also notable were the statements by the Marshall Islands and Kiribati, two countries that experienced the devastating short- and long-term consequences of nuclear weapons testing, conducted by the US and the United Kingdom (UK). Sadly, the Nuclear Weapon States (NWS: China, France, Russia, UK, and US) and many of their allies, especially the France/UK/US NATO allies, expressed far too little interest in nuclear disarmament and far more interest in maintaining the status quo. It’s as if they had not listened to the Secretary General’s remarks at all, as if the TPNW did not exist, as if there weren’t a war and other geopolitical tensions involving multiple NWS. They seemed to advocate for business as usual, with disarmament only a dream for the naïve.

    The end of the week featured the NGO session, where I was proud to deliver a statement on behalf of NAPF. If you have not watched the statement, I hope you’ll take time to do so. It is only six minutes long and you can find it here.

    Speaking in the UN General Assembly Hall
    It was exhilarating to not only have the opportunity to share with the conference my own and NAPF’s views on the urgency of nuclear disarmament, but also to hear from giants in the field, such as Sergio Duarte (former UN High Representative for Disarmament and President of the Pugwash Conferences) and Jackie Cabasso (from Western States Legal Foundation and Mayors for Peace), as well as rising stars of nuclear disarmament such as Yuta Takahashi of NO NUKES Tokyo and Benetick Kabua Maddison of the Marshallese Educational Initiative, who is also a part of our youth initiative, Reverse the Trend.

    I missed the second week of the conference in order to be in Santa Barbara for our 28th Annual Sadako Peace Day and to spend time in person with various members of our community. My time couldn’t have been more energizing and humbling. Sadako Peace Day saw us back at La Casa de Maria, with many in our community eager to reconnect and gratified to be back on the beautiful grounds of La Casa. In fact, we were their first public event since the site was closed following the devastating mudslides in 2018. I also had the opportunity to meet with our Board in person, following which our Senior Vice President Richard Falk wrote two essays inspired by our discussions. I hope you will read them.

    With Father Larry Gosselin at Sadako Peace Day
    During the third week of August, and back in New York and at the UN, I had the opportunity to participate in three separate conference side events. The first, co-organized by NAPF and IPPNW, took place on August 15. I was fortunate to Chair a fantastic panel of four fabulous experts and fierce advocates of a nuclear weapons-free world: Veronique Christory (ICRC Senior Advisor), Ambassador Tito of Kiribati, Tilman Ruff (Co-President of IPPNW), and Bonnie Docherty (Harvard Law Human Rights Clinic and Human Rights Watch). The focus of the panel was on humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and the discussion ranged from past to present to future, with important remarks and connections to the TPNW. I also participated at an August 17 side event, co-organized by Austria and Princeton, where I spoke about the environmental consequences of nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands. And finally, on August 19, at another side-event co-organized by Abolition 2000 and World Future Council and others, I made the case for an absolutist position on nuclear abolition. All three events were amazing opportunities to advance NAPF’s mission and vision.

    The fourth week of the conference featured negotiations on drafts of the outcome document, which ultimately did not end up being adopted. I wrote an article for our website following the late Friday night closing session. If you haven’t read it, I hope you’ll consider doing so. In the article, I outline the issues that were at stake during the conference and make a case for why nuclear disarmament is more important than ever.

    Throughout the month I have felt warmly welcomed by everyone at NAPF – Carol Warner, Christian Ciobanu, Josie Parkhouse, Sandy Jones, and our Board of Directors. Each in their own way has supported, trusted, encouraged, and welcomed me into this family that is NAPF. I couldn’t be more grateful.

    Stay tuned for more updates from us this month on the continuation of our Nuclear Dangers in Ukraine Discussion Series (on Zoom), a new series of invited articles on nuclear abolition and other global challenges, and important work that we will be doing at the UN in regards to the TPNW. We also have an event coming up in November, a Women Waging Peace Luncheon, for which you can now purchase tickets and/or consider sponsorship opportunities. We are excited to honor two amazing women – Cynthia Lazaroff and Monique Limón – both of whom have made significant contributions to a nuclear weapons-free world and both of whom truly embody one of our guiding principles, “Peace is more than the absence of war.”

    This note also comes with an enormous thank you to all those who have supported NAPF over its four decades of existence, in a myriad of ways – from giving their time, energy and generosity to supporting nuclear disarmament efforts locally, nationally, and internationally. We wouldn’t be where we are today without you. We remain committed to a peaceful world, free of nuclear weapons, for as long as it takes to achieve.

    Warmly and with gratitude,

    Ivana

  • How you can help the people of Ukraine

    Dear Friends of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation,

    The war in Ukraine continues. Its brutality has horrified the world; its dangers have forced a great and unpredictable shift in history. There is reason to worry, reason to mourn, but also reason to hope. The world community has rallied. There is a renewed sense of meaning and urgency to democracy. And Ukraine itself continues to offer a heroic resistance.

    Still, the cost is enormous, and will only grow. We must continue to support those on the ground working to mitigate the humanitarian disaster brought about by outright war. The major charities like Save the Children, Médécins sans Frontières, Ukrainian Red Cross, and Polish Red Cross are operating across the conflict. Among Ukrainian organizations, Razom has also been operating at scale, and has been widely endorsed: https://razomforukraine.org/

    In this email, however, we’d like once more to highlight for you some smaller organizations and initiatives that are also doing essential work on the frontlines.

    Cash for Refugees. A group of Americans with roots in Russian and Ukraine have organized an ad-hoc program to distribute small amounts of cash (in the hundreds of dollars) to refugees coming across the border to Romania. This allows people the dignity and flexibility of being able to spend some money as they make their way across Europe. https://www.cashforrefugees.org/

    Children’s Corner at the Berlin Main Train Station (Hauptbahnhof). Thousands of refugees are pouring into the main train station in Berlin, many of them children, some of them unaccompanied. A group of volunteers in Berlin is raising funds to support a daycare: to care for the children, watch them, and distribute toys, snacks, and warm clothing. Donations can be made through this website (a European equivalent of GoFundMe):
    https://www.betterplace.me/donations-for-childrens-corner-at-berlin-hbf

    The 24.02 Fund. This is the brainchild of a small independent news outlet in Ukraine called Zaborona Media, which has long been at the forefront of critical journalism in the country (documenting everything from relations with Russia to corruption in the Ukrainian government). They are now raising funds to support Ukrainian journalists in the war, including buying them supplies and protective gear. https://2402.org/

    Vostok SOS. This organization has been working in Ukraine to help resettle refugees displaced from eastern Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict with Russian in 2014. They are well-placed on the ground to expand their humanitarian efforts across the country. You can support them here via bank transfer:
    https://vostok-sos.org/en/ukraine-under-fire-support-vostok-sos-aid-operation/
    Or via credit card through their Swiss partner, Libereco: https://www.lphr.org/en/spenden/

    It’s also important to continue to make your voices heard in the halls of power. Write your representatives (for instance, via the site democracy.io) to call for what your conscience dictates when it comes to supporting Ukraine, de-escalation, and diplomacy.

    Thank you to you all for your generosity and passion for peace in this difficult time.

    In Solidarity,
    Matthew Spellberg for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

  • Conference on the Nexus between Climate Change and International Security

    Conference on the Nexus between Climate Change and International Security

    On September 23rd, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and NYU UN Initiative co-hosted a conference regarding the nexus between climate change and global security. Prominent experts and youth activists, such as Dr. Tara Drozdenko, Managing Director of Nuclear Policy & Nonproliferation of the Outrider Foundation; Ms. Lovely Umayam, Founder of Bombshelltoe; Mr. Seth Shelden, the UN Liaison of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN); and Ms. Amanda Simonsen, a Youth Representative of Peace Boat US, shared their views on these two existential issues. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation was represented on behalf of Mr. Christian N. Ciobanu, our New York and Youth Representative. Peace Boat US, Peace Action New York State, NYU International Relations Society, and NYU United Nations Initiative co-sponsored the event.

    Dr. Drozdenko spoke candidly about the dangers of the receding ice caps in Greenland, which, as a result of climate change, will expose radioactive waste from the US that has been buried under the ice since the height of the Cold War. Further, she also discussed the “Castle Bravo” thermonuclear test, which caused significant radioactive fallout in the Marshall Islands. In order to “trap” the radiation, the US built the Runit Dome, which is slowly being cracked and worn down by the rising sea levels in the Pacific.  She also discussed how the water crisis in Kashmir could exacerbate tensions between Pakistan and India, two nuclear-armed states.

    Mr. Shelden introduced the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Mr. Shelden spoke about TPNW’s positive obligations, including its provisions on victim assistance and environmental remediation. Additionally, Mr. Shelden underscored the necessity for activists to broaden the climate crisis discussion to include the possibility of an abrupt nuclear winter.  In this regard, he discussed how the effects of a limited nuclear war between India and Pakistan could impact the global surface temperature and cause a decline in food production that would put two billion people at risk.

    Ms. Umayam shared her decision to engage with the Navajo communities living near contaminated uranium mines. She also presented her unique project, Ways of Knowing, in which she works with the Navajo communities to rebuild themselves through traditional storytelling and citizen science. This  multimedia project reveals personal experiences and injustices linked to the enviromental impact of nuclear testing in order to understand the profound consequences of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy. In essence, the project illustrates both the humanitarian and environmental impacts of nuclear weapons in the US and the necessity for citizens, especially those affected by nuclear weapons, to engage in the nuclear conversation. More information about the project can be found here.

    Mr. Ciobanu was our penultimate speaker. He provided further insights on the exposure of nuclear waste from the dome in the Marshall Islands and described both the humanitarian and enviromentals impacts of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands. He also shared Columbia University’s recent studies about a possible nuclear dumping site on Naen Island, Rongelap Atoll. He also detailed the works of Ms. Darlene Keju, Marshallese activist and educator; and Mr. Tony deBrum, former Marshallese politician, and their methods of disarmament activism. Mr. Ciobanu also highlighted deBrum’s strong leadership in the climate movement. Significantly, deBrum succeeded in forming the High Ambition Coalition, a coalition between developing and developed countries to hold global temperatures to a 1.5C increase. Mr. Ciobanu then placed a strong emphasis on youth involvement by showing a video featuring Ms. Kathy Jetnil Kijiner, a Marshallese youth activist, and explaining how students can be involved in both climate action and disarmament activism.

    Ms. Simonsen wrapped up our event by highlighting Peace Boat US, a non-governmental organization that is focused on human rights, maintaining peace, and environmental protection.  The organization hosts study programs, collaborates with Nobel Peace Laureates, and promotes peace education by having guest educators engage students in onboard activities, conferences, workshops, and cultural exchange opportunities. Moreover, as detailed by Ms. Simonsen, Peace Boat has oceans and climate youth ambassadors from Small Island Developing States (SIDS). These young people are on the frontlines of climate change and marine degradation. Several of them are also tackling the effects of nuclear testing in the South Pacific. Finally, Ms. Simonsen discussed Peace Boat’s “Youth for Disarmament,” a joint initiative with the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs.

  • The Importance of Alternative Media

    The superficiality of today’s television

    Social critic Neil Postman contrasted the futures predicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World in the foreword of his 1985 book “Amusing Ourselves to Death”. He wrote:

    “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.”

    Niel Postman’s book, “Amusing Ourselves To Death; or Public Discourse in an Age of Show Business” (1985), had its origins at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where Postman was invited to join a panel discussing George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. Postman said that our present situation was better predicted by Huxley’s “Brave New World”. Today, he maintained it is not fear that bars us from truth. Instead, truth is drowned in distractions and the pursuit of pleasure, by the public’s addiction to amusement.

    Postman sees television as the modern equivalent of Huxley’s pleasure-inducing drug, soma, and he maintains that that television, as a medium, is intrinsically superficial and unable to discuss serious issues. Looking at television as it is today, one must agree with him.

    The wealth and power of the establishment

    The media are a battleground where reformers struggle for attention, but are defeated with great regularity by the wealth and power of the establishment. This is a tragedy because today there is an urgent need to make public opinion aware of the serious problems facing civilization, and the steps that are needed to solve these problems. The mass media could potentially be a great force for public education, but in general their role is not only unhelpful – it is often negative. War and conflict are blatantly advertised by television and newspapers.

    Newspapers and war

    There is a true story about the powerful newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst that illustrates the relationship between the mass media and the institution of war: When an explosion sank the American warship USS Maine in the harbor of Havana, Hearst anticipated (and desired) that the incident would lead to war between the United States and Spain. He therefore sent his best illustrator, Fredrick Remington, to Havana to produce drawings of the scene. After a few days in Havana, Remington cabled to Hearst, “All’s quiet here. There will be no war.” Hearst cabled back, “You supply the pictures. I’ll supply the war.” Hearst was true to his words. His newspapers inflamed American public opinion to such an extent that the Spanish-American War became inevitable. During the course of the war, Hearst sold many newspapers, and Remington many drawings. From this story one might almost conclude that newspapers thrive on war, while war thrives on newspapers.

    Before the advent of widely-read newspapers, European wars tended to be fought by mercenary soldiers, recruited from the lowest ranks of society, and motivated by financial considerations. The emotions of the population were not aroused by such limited and decorous wars. However, the French Revolution and the power of newspapers changed this situation, and war became a total phenomenon that involved emotions. The media were able to mobilize on a huge scale the communal defense mechanism that Konrad Lorenz called “militant enthusiasm” – self-sacrifice for the defense of the tribe. It did not escape the notice of politicians that control of the media is the key to political power in the modern world. For example, Hitler was extremely conscious of the force of propaganda, and it became one of his favorite instruments for exerting power.

    With the advent of radio and television, the influence of the mass media became still greater. Today, state-controlled or money-controlled newspapers, radio and television are widely used by the power elite to manipulate public opinion. This is true in most countries of the world, even in those that pride themselves on allowing freedom of speech. For example, during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the official version of events was broadcast by CNN, and criticism of the invasion was almost absent from their transmissions.

    The mass media and our present crisis

    Today we are faced with the task of creating a new global ethic in which loyalty to family, religion and nation will be supplemented by a higher loyalty to humanity as a whole. In case of conflicts, loyalty to humanity as a whole must take precedence. In addition, our present culture of violence must be replaced by a culture of peace. To achieve these essential goals, we urgently need the cooperation of the mass media.

    The predicament of humanity today has been called “a race between education and catastrophe”: Human emotions have not changed much during the last 40,000 years. Human nature still contains an element of tribalism to which nationalistic politicians successfully appeal. The completely sovereign nation-state is still the basis of our global political system. The danger in this situation is due to the fact that modern science has given the human race incredibly destructive weapons. Because of these weapons, the tribal tendencies in human nature and the politically fragmented structure of our world have both become dangerous anachronisms.

    After the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Albert Einstein said, “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything except our way of thinking, and thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophes.” We have to learn to think in a new way. Will we learn this in time to prevent disaster? When we consider the almost miraculous power of our modern electronic media, we can be optimistic. Cannot our marvelous global communication network be used to change anachronistic ways of thought and anachronistic social and political institutions in time, so that the system will not self-destruct as science and technology revolutionize our world? If they were properly used, our instantaneous global communications could give us hope.

    The success of our species is built on cultural evolution, the central element of which is cooperation. Thus human nature has two sides, tribal emotions are present, but they are balanced by the human genius for cooperation. The case of Scandinavia – once war-torn, now cooperative – shows that education is able to bring out either the kind and cooperative side of human nature, or the xenophobic and violent side. Which of these shall it be? It is up to our educational systems to decide, and the mass media are an extremely important part of education. Hence the great responsibility that is now in the hands of the media.

    How do the mass media fulfill this life-or-death responsibility? Do they give us insight? No, they give us pop music. Do they give us an understanding of the sweep of evolution and history? No, they give us sport. Do they give us an understanding of need for strengthening the United Nations, and the ways that it could be strengthened? No, they give us sit-coms and soap operas. Do they give us unbiased news? No, they give us news that has been edited to conform with the interests of the military-industrial complex and other powerful lobbys. Do they present us with the need for a just system of international law that acts on individuals? On the whole, the subject is neglected. Do they tell of of the essentially genocidal nature of nuclear weapons, and the urgent need for their complete abolition? No, they give us programs about gardening and making food.

    A consumer who subscribes to the “package” of broadcasts sold by a cable company can often search through all 100 or so channels without finding a single program that offers insight into the various problems that are facing the world today. What the viewer finds instead is a mixture of pro-establishment propaganda and entertainment. Meanwhile the neglected global problems are becoming progressively more severe. In general, the mass media behave as though their role is to prevent the peoples of the world from joining hands and working to change the world and to save it from thermonuclear and environmental catastrophes. The television viewer sits slumped in a chair, passive, isolated, disempowered and stupefied. The future of the world hangs in the balance, the fate of children and grandchildren hang in the balance, but the television viewer feels no impulse to work actively to change the world or to save it. The Roman emperors gave their people bread and circuses to numb them into political inactivity. The modern mass media seem to be playing a similar role.

    Our duty to future generations

    The future of human civilization is endangered both by the threat of themonuclear war and by the threat of catastrophic climate change. It is not only humans that are threatened, but also the other organisms with which we share the gift of life. We must also consider the threat of a global famine of extremely large proportions, when the end of the fossil fuel era, combined with the effects of climate change, reduce our ability to support a growing global population.

    We live at a critical moment of history. Our duty to future generations is clear: We must achieve a steady-state economic system. We must restore democracy in our own countries when it has been replaced by oligarchy. We must decrease economic inequality both between nations and within nations. We must break the power of corporate greed. We must leave fossil fuels in the ground. We must stabilize and ultimately reduce the global population. We must eliminate the institution of war; and we must develop new ethics to match our advanced technology, ethics in which narrow selfishness, short-sightedness and nationalism will be replaced by loyalty to humanity as a whole, combined with respect for nature.

    Inaction is not an option. We have to act with courage and dedication, even if the odds are against success, because the stakes are so high.

    The mass media could mobilize us to action, but they have failed in their duty.

    Our educational systems could also wake us up and make us act, but they too has failed us. The battle to save the earth from human greed and folly has to be fought in the alternative media.

    The alternative media, and all who work with them deserve both our gratitude and our financial support. They alone, can correct the distorted and incomplete picture of the world that we obtain from the mass media. They alone can show us the path to a future in which our children, grandchildren, and all future generations can survive.

    A book discussing the importance of alternative media can be freely downloaded and circulated from this address:

    http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Searching-for-truth-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf

    More freely downloadable books and articles on  other global problems can be found on the following link:

    http://eacpe.org/about-john-scales-avery/

  • Singapore Summit: Final Statement

    Singapore Summit: Final Statement

    Joint Statement of President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at the Singapore Summit

    President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) held a first, historic summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018.

    President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un conducted a comprehensive, in-depth, and sincere exchange of opinions on the issues related to the establishment of new U.S.-DPRK relations and the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK, and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

    Convinced that the establishment of new U.S.-DPRK relations will contribute to the peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and of the world, and recognizing that mutual confidence building can promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un state the following:

    1. The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new U.S.-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.

    2. The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

    3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

    4. The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.

    Having acknowledged that the U.S.-DPRK summit — the first in history — was an epochal event of great significance in overcoming decades of tensions and hostilities between the two countries and for the opening up of a new future, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un commit to implement the stipulations in this joint statement fully and expeditiously. The United States and the DPRK commit to hold follow-up negotiations, led by the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and a relevant high-level DPRK official, at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes of the U.S.-DPRK summit.

    President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have committed to cooperate for the development of new U.S.-DPRK relations and for the promotion of peace, prosperity, and security of the Korean Peninsula and of the world.

    (Signed)

    DONALD J. TRUMP
    President of the United States of America

    KIM JONG UN
    Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

    June 12, 2018
    Sentosa Island
    Singapore