Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Tag: NAPF

  • Nukes Are Nuts: The Sequel

    David KriegerNuclear weapons are monstrous – obscene – explosive devices that have no function other than to threaten or cause mass annihilation. They kill indiscriminately and cause unimaginable suffering. The world knows well the death, destruction and lingering pain caused by these weapons used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nuclear weapons could end civilization and have no place in a civilized society. Nukes are nuts!

    Nuclear weapons are very effective killing devices. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki demonstrated that a single, small nuclear weapon is capable of destroying a city and causing mass death and suffering beyond any society’s capacity to cope with such a humanitarian tragedy. The City of Hiroshima 2013 Peace Declaration, issued 68 years after a single atomic weapon destroyed the city, reflected on the effects of the US atomic bomb: “Indiscriminately stealing the lives of innocent people, permanently altering the lives of survivors, and stalking their minds and bodies to the end of their days, the atomic bomb is the ultimate inhumane weapon and an absolute evil.” Nuclear weapons corrupt our humanity. Nukes are nuts!

    Atmospheric scientists inform us of what would happen in a relatively small regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan, in which each side used 50 Hiroshima-size nuclear weapons on the other side’s cities. It would result in putting enough soot into the upper stratosphere to restrict warming sunlight, shorten growing seasons and cause crop failures leading to global nuclear famine and the deaths by starvation of some 2 billion people. Nukes are nuts!

    The possibility of nuclear famine is horrendous, but even more terrifying would be an all-out nuclear war, which could send the planet into another ice age and make precarious the continued existence of human life. Nuclear weapons threaten not the planet itself, for the planet can recover after hundreds of thousands of years. They threaten the human species and all other forms of complex life. The nuclear-armed countries are playing Russian roulette with the human future. Nukes are nuts!

    In November 2013, the Council of Delegates of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement passed a resolution on “Working towards the elimination of nuclear weapons: Four-year action plan.” The council reiterated “its deep concern about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, including the unspeakable human suffering that their use would cause and the threat that such weapons pose to food production, the environment and future generations.” Nukes are nuts!

    By any measure, the possession, threat or use of nuclear weapons is immoral and exceedingly dangerous. Continued reliance on these weapons of mass annihilation by the nine nuclear-armed countries encourages nuclear proliferation and keeps open the door for terrorists to obtain nuclear arms. A nuclear war could be initiated by accident, miscalculation or design. Nukes are nuts!

    Those of us privileged to be alive on the planet now have responsibilities to be good stewards of the planet and its varied life forms, and to pass the planet on intact to new generations. What kind of stewards are we? Are we fulfilling our responsibilities to future generations of humans who are not yet here to speak for themselves? Nukes are nuts!

    Is it not extreme hubris for the leaders of nuclear-armed states to assert that the manufacture, possession, deployment, modernization, threatened use and use of these weapons, capable of omnicide, the death of all, can be controlled by human beings without proliferating to other countries or being used by accident or design, putting at risk all that we treasure, including the future of the human species? Nukes are nuts!

    Nuclear weapons are creations of the human mind that came into being through political decisions and scientific and technological expertise. While these weapons are products of human invention and effort, our human capacity to control the destructive uses of this technology, by means of law or morality, has been grossly inadequate. We need to change our mindsets about nuclear weapons. They do not protect us but, rather, bring us to the precipice of catastrophe. Nukes are nuts!

    Humanity cannot afford a sequel to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We must learn from our past and assure that nuclear weapons and nuclear war are not our legacy to the future. Nukes are nuts!

    This article was originally published by Truthout.

    Find out more about Nukes are Nuts at www.nukesarenuts.org.

  • Inner City Youth Activists Attend NAPF Peace Leadership Training

    A recent NAPF Peace Leadership Training held at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst found new advocates among those living in the inner cities. Young activists involved with Arise for Justice in Springfield learned from NAPF Peace Leadership Director Paul K. Chappell how to deal with anger and violent situations, and how to bring the principles of nonviolence into their lives.

    UMASS group

    “I will improve my anger and condone nonviolence . . . They need to expand this workshop to places like Springfield because this workshop is perfect.” — Selassei Walker, 15

    “I wanted to attend this workshop because it’s a great way to find peace within yourself and it just adds another tool to my toolbox for life. Now I will utilize everything I learned in everyday life and let other people know what I’ve learned . . .This is a great workshop that manyyoung people should hear about and be a part of.” — Corey King, 17

    “I’ve learned how to react towards certain situations with the understanding of why violence happens and also how to express myself and which actions and expressions to do/not do during a conflict.” — Courtney Watkins, 20

    “I will utilize what I’ve learned at Arise . . . Non-violence is our most powerful tool against corruption . . . Bring Paul to Arise!” — Frank Cincotta, 22

    “I originally wanted to use the training, to use the tactics at work and everyday environment. I live in a very violent city and this training can be used to inform other youth how to deflate violent confrontations . . . This is something that should be held at local schools and areas where peace is a problem . . . I hope you come to Springfield, MA!” — Julia Scott, 27 (founder of one of the Arise youth groups in Springfield)

    Event planner Mary McCarthy, a member of the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice and participant in the first NAPF Peace Leadership Training held in Santa Barbara in summer 2012, is now working to bring Paul Chappell and the Peace Leadership Training to downtown Springfield in the spring of 2014. Springfield is known for having one of the highest crime rates in the country.
    McCarthy said, “Paul Chappell explains that Peace Leadership Training is a gateway. It is inspiring to see young people take in the knowledge of nonviolence, then turn around and want to facilitate positive change in their community…This is the essence of peace work.”

    Within the next several months, Paul Chappell will be giving peace leadership trainings in Uganda, Canada and the University of San Diego Graduate School of Leadership and Education Sciences. Email Paul at pchappell@napf.org for more information.

  • NAPF Activities at the UN General Assembly First Committee

    The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has actively engaged with young people on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation by providing them with opportunities to observe the UN First Committee and events on nuclear disarmament.

    Engagement with Young People

    To ensure that young people could actively monitor discussions in UNGA’s First Committee, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation collaborated with Ban All Nukes Generation.  As part of this collaboration, NAPF accredited several young people and provided them with opportunities to monitor international discussions on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, alternative forums in the international disarmament machinery, and the WMDFZ in the Middle East.

    In addition, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation formed a relationship with Northeastern University to enable a young person to help the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Ban All Nukes Generation in New York. The student, Ms. Christina Reynolds, a senior at Northeastern, has been actively monitoring the First Committee and assisting the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation with its events and presentations in New York.

    Events

    On October 22, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Peace Boat, and Hibakusha Stories convened a side event entitled “ Different perspectives on nuclear disarmament: Hibakusha, Humanitarian, and the Youth.”  Ms. Setsuko Thurlow and Mr. Yasuaki Yamashita provided moving testimonies about the devastating impact of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Mr. Christian N. Ciobanu focused on Ban All Nuke Generation’s project in Oslo on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. He explained to the audience that BANG brought 40 young people to Oslo during the Norwegian Conference on the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons. He also explained how this opportunity provided young activities to bolster the humanitarian initiative.

    Finally, Mr. Clifton Truman Daniel, the grandson of US President Truman, focused on his personal conviction to support the nuclear disarmament movement.On October 27, Mr. Christian N. Ciobanu and Mr. Fabian Rutherford, Geneva Representative of the School of African and Oriental Studies’ Strategic Concept for Removal of Arms and Proliferation (SCRAP), organized a special presentation for students at Drew University on civil society’s perspectives on nuclear disarmament.

    Mr. Ciobanu focused on the humanitarian initiative on nuclear weapons and the imperative need for the international community to immediately ban these nuclear weapons. Mr. Rutherford provided a general overview of the international disarmament machinery and information about SCRAP’s project to these young students.

  • Nuclear Zero: The Moral Imperative

    How grateful I am to be able to stand in this good company and to receive the honor that will make me a part of the great processional of those you have honored before me.
    I am especially grateful to your president, David Krieger.  David has a deep pervasive ultimate concern to which he has dedicated the full force of his creative energy and imagination.  He has this crazy idea to which he has committed himself: he wants to save the earth and all its inhabitants from self-destruction.  He wants to make the planet a more peaceable habitation for all of us, and for our children and grandchildren after us.  How good it is to be counted among his followers.
    Now here I bring you the words of the beloved poet, Stanley Kunitz, written when he was somewhere on his way to the 100 years he lived, before his death a few years ago.
    I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon….
    And here am I, an aged rabbi, who, like a peddler with a pack on his back, wherever he goes, comes bearing a pack of notions, some very old and familiar notions:  “Love thy neighbor as thyself.  It hath been told thee what is good and what the Lord requires of thee: only to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.  And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.  And they shall sit, everyone, under his vine and his fig tree, with none to make them afraid.  If I am not for myself, who will be for me?  And being for myself alone, what am I?  And if not now, when?” And here, from a 1,800-year-old commentary on the Bible, the Midrash, where God is portrayed showing Adam all that has been created, and says to him: “See my works, how fine and excellent they are.  All that I have created has been given to you.  Remember this and do not corrupt and desolate the world, for if you corrupt it, there is no one after you to set it right.”
    Those are ancient words and ancient visions.  They come out of the sacred books of the Jewish civilization, but surely they embody ideals and visions held sacred by Christians and Muslims, and other faiths, and non-believers as well.  To voice them here is to remember that we live in a world in which the ideals of love and fellowship and peace and justice and care for the planet, are daily being mutilated throughout the world, even here in this land, even here in Santa Barbara.  For we live in a time of broken ideals, a broken world, a fragmented humanity, which needs to be made whole.
    But of all the words of the Bible, those that have been profoundly significant to all of us associated with the purposes of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation are to be found in the concluding chapters of the book of Deuteronomy.  In churches everywhere it is customary to read scripture from a book.  But in synagogues we Jews read every week from a parchment scroll we call Torah.  The Torah is written in Hebrew on a scroll which bears the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch.  Each scroll is written by hand, the work of a scribe who reverently and lovingly copies every word of it.  According to a rigorous tradition the scribe must use a quill to serve him as a pen, so that the ink will touch with gentleness the pages of the parchment.  For the Torah and the Bible it introduces is a book of peace.  Only a quill, no metal, is permitted to be the instrument of the scribe’s work.  For metal is the material of violence, of war; it may not be used in composing the book of peace.
    Wherever the scribe has done his work throughout the centuries and neared the completion of it as he reached the closing chapters of the fifth book, the book of Deuteronomy, his quill has brought to the parchment these words of danger and challenge, which, ever since they were first spoken, have reverberated throughout human history: “See, I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed after you.”
    To speak of choosing the way of blessing and life compels us to reckon with all that threatens life in our time, but also to raise the fearful question as to whether our civilization, so visibly incoherent and in decline, is not itself, in the throes of death. (Is such a thing possible?)   We have been so infused with the conceit that we could escape the remorseless fate that has overtaken all previous social systems—that we with all of our sophistication, with all of our so-called exceptionalism, that we with our science and industry, our democracy, our ingenuity, could violate the iron law of history.  For history has surely shown that every civilization has perished sooner or later.  Human social systems, as Robert Sinai once wrote, with their members anxious, insecure, restless, swollen with pride, driven by the will to power and by inordinate appetites, corrupted by self-intoxication and self-deception, sooner or later have sinned against the laws of proportion and harmony and have plunged into decay and self-destruction.
    Now, I ask you, what of our civilization?  Small wonder that we should be uncertain.  What hurts and confuses us is the lurking suspicion that because of what we have done to the air and the earth and the cities and the children and to one another, we may possibly have been condemned to live in an age that will make no significant contribution to the human spirit.  What hurts and confuses us is the knowledge that a huge proportion of our resources, our ingenuity, our wisdom, our creative energy, leaves untouched the abiding problems of human beings who live in this troubled time.  Technological processes uninhibited by any human values other than the dream of total security have committed great and even smaller powers to collective mechanisms of destruction.  But the dream of total security has produced only the reality of total vulnerability.  As for nuclear weapons, and the several powers that possess them, we know, as I think it was George Kennan who once said, “nuclear weapons cannot bring us security, they can only bring revenge.”  If only we could banish this sterile dream and sadistic nightmare.
    “We have fed the heart on fantasies,” the poet Yeats once said, “the heart’s grown brutal from the fare/  More substance in our enmities/ Than in our love.” And all of this rooted in the conviction that nothing must stand in the way of the demonstration of our power.  “Power to coerce,” Norman Cousins once wrote, “power to harm, power that intimidates intelligence, power that conquers language and renders other forms of communication incoherent and irrelevant, power becoming a theology, admitting no other gods before it…”  Surely we know that the policies to which we have been so slavishly obedient end up, as always, constituting a form of violence against the poor—the ever growing kingdom of the poor,
    Yet we know there is another power within us, a power that will enable to us to say “NO” to the forces that have ruled over our thinking and feeling.  It is the power of our own critical intelligence, of our own decency, the power of the human spirit, a spiritual power present in every person, and it can be actualized.  And we shall have to actualize this power without pretending away our need for security, or that we do indeed live in a brutal world, brimming with anger and suspicion, and adversaries.
    There is a story members of the clergy like to tell.  It concerns a minister (it could be a priest, a rabbi, or an imam) who wants to stage an object lesson for the members of his/her congregation, and placed a lion and a lamb in a cage outside the entrance to the church.  And they lived together in peace.  And people from miles around came to see this remarkable phenomenon.  Finally, the mayor of the city, intrigued by this feat, sent a delegation to inquire how the minister pulled off this trick.  ‘Oh, “there’s no trick at all,” said the minister.  “All you have to do is put in a fresh lamb from time to time.”
    In the real world, we know very well, lions and lambs do not live together peacefully.  Even the prophet Isaiah, when he spoke of such a possibility, was referring to a messianic time.  And that’s where the rub is for us: how to face up to the truth of this real world of brutality, fear, mutual rivalry, and the need for security, and still retain hope, still work for something different.
    How shall we do that?  We need some troubled people.  We need agitated people.  We need men and women who are not ashamed to be sensitive and tender with one another.  We need those who are willing to become members of a community dedicated to each other’s fulfillment.  We need men and women who have the courage to be afraid, afraid of all those forces which have removed our humanity.  And as for the vast store of nuclear weapons, we need men and women who can maintain a firm conviction that it is not so wild a dream (to borrow the words of Norman Corwin) that we can negotiate, not only to do away with the nuclear arms race, but also that we can abolish nuclear arms, altogether.  We must not let this hope be crushed amidst the powers and the principalities.  And that is why the work of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is so important.
    And something more, we need to give voice to the abandoned and forgotten, and preserve a vision that can transcend the dangerous imagery of victory and defeat, a vision of a genuinely humane society, in a genuinely decent world, that we can ultimately approach a great common tenderness.
    How shall I thank you for the gift of the honor you have given me?  What I could have said at the very beginning, and it might have been worthy and sufficient for this occasion, are Shakespeare’s words:
    “I can no other answer make, but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks.”

  • 2013 Evening for Peace Remarks

    David KriegerLet me add my welcome to our 30th annual Evening for Peace.  Over the years we’ve honored some remarkable Peace Leaders, and tonight we do so again.

    Thirty-one years ago we founded the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation with a dream that citizens could make a difference on the most important issues of our time – Peace in the Nuclear Age and the abolition of nuclear weapons.  We knew that what we were doing was important, but we only glimpsed the full potential of what the Foundation could be and how much we were needed in the world.

    Since our founding, the world has dismantled more than 50,000 nuclear weapons.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is there are still 17,000 in the world, and one is too many.  A relatively small regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan could result in a global nuclear famine taking the lives of upwards of a billion people.  A full-scale nuclear war would end civilization and most complex life on the planet.  So, there remains important work to do.

    I want to offer a few words of advice and encouragement to the young people here tonight.  I have five brief points.

    1. Be citizens of the world, embrace the world, see it in all its magnificence, and work to make it a more decent place for all.
    2. Be leaders of today; don’t wait for tomorrow.  The truth is that we need you now, and what you do now will help shape the future.
    3. Always choose hope.  Hope inspires action, as action inspires hope.
    4. Never give up.  To accomplish any great thing requires perseverance.
    5. Finally, learn how you can strengthen your vision and skills by working with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.  Find out more about the Foundation at wagingpeace.org.

    Now, a few words of thanks to our supporters in the room and beyond.

    • Thank you for caring so deeply.
    • Thank you for joining your dreams of a better world with ours.
    • Thank you for making possible what we do each day to build peace and abolish nuclear arms.

    It is a rare and beautiful thing to have an organization like this Foundation, through which people can work day in and day out for the noble goals of assuring humanity’s future.  If you would like to become more involved in the Foundation’s work, let us know.

    Now, it is my great pleasure to introduce you to our honoree, Rabbi Leonard Beerman.

    We honor him as the co-founder, with George Regas, of the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race – an Interfaith Center that made it clear that nuclear weapons are a paramount moral issue of our time.

    We honor him as a wise and compassionate man.

    We honor him as a man of conscience and uncommon decency.

    When peace has needed a voice, Rabbi Beerman has spoken.

    When justice has needed an ally, Rabbi Beerman has stood firm.

    When dark clouds of war have gathered, Rabbi Beerman has been a ray of light.

    When nuclear weapons have put all that we love and treasure at risk, Rabbi Beerman has been a source of hope and moral strength.

    On behalf of the Directors and members of the Foundation, I am very pleased to present to Rabbi Leonard Beerman the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s 2013 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award.

  • NAPF Congratulates Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

    The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) congratulates the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for receiving the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

    OPCW is the body that enforces the Chemical Weapons Convention, the international treaty that prohibits the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of chemical weapons. Since the Convention came into force in 1997, it has been ratified by 189 states and the OPCW has conducted more than 5,000 inspections in 86 countries. According to its statistics, 81.1 percent of the world’s declared stockpile of chemical agents has been verifiably destroyed.

    Syria is due to become the 190th member state to join the Chemical Weapons Convention on October 14, 2013. OPCW is the organization responsible for destroying its stockpiles of chemical weapons.

    Thorbjoern Jagland, the head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, said in his announcement of this year’s peace laureate that the award is a reminder to other nations, including the United States and Russia, to eliminate their own stockpiles of chemical weapons, “especially because they are demanding that others do the same, like Syria.”  He added, “We now have the opportunity to get rid of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction… That would be a great event in history if we could achieve that.”

    The Norwegian Nobel Committee said, “The conventions and the work of the OPCW have defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law.” It also stated, “Disarmament figures prominently in Alfred Nobel’s will. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has through numerous prizes underlined the need to do away with nuclear weapons. By means of the present award to the OPCW, the Committee is seeking to contribute to the elimination of chemical weapons.”

    The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s vision is a just and peaceful world, free of nuclear weapons. The implementation of a Nuclear Weapons Convention, which would make the manufacture, testing, possession, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons illegal under international law, would build on and expand what the OPCW has accomplished in enforcing the Chemical Weapons Convention, making the world a safer place.

  • Los protectores del Medio Ambiente

    Click here for the English version.

    La principal misión y el compromiso de la Nuclear Age Peace Foundation es educar y abogar por la paz y un mundo libre de armas nucleares y apoyar a los líderes de la paz, así como la preservación del medio ambiente y garantizar los derechos de las generaciones futuras. A través de seminarios, programas de sensibilización, libros y los medios de comunicación, llegamos a mucha gente y unimos nuestra voz a otras organizaciones que luchan para lograr ese momento anhelado, la eliminación total de todas las armas nucleares.

    También somos conscientes de otras situaciones que ponen en peligro el futuro y la salud de nuestro planeta.  Con el fin de disfrutar del mundo de paz que deseamos, tenemos que tener en primer lugar, un mundo con la naturaleza y todas sus maravillas. Y ese mundo está bajo el asedio por las actividades humanas implacables que saquean nuestra casa común sin tener en consideración las consecuencias de la codicia y el egoísmo.

    Nuestros recursos naturales están disminuyendo rápidamente, tratamos a nuestro mundo como un banco, retirando todos los días la riqueza, pero sin hacer depósitos o inversiones.

    Es innegable que el cambio climático está ocurriendo y muy rápido. Mientras escribo estas notas, estoy leyendo que un panel internacional de científicos ha llegado a la conclusión de que el nivel del mar podría elevarse un metro a finales de este siglo, con todas sus catastróficas consecuencias.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/science/earth/extremely-likely-that-human-activity-is-driving-climate-change-panel-finds.html?ref=global-home&_r=0

    Otra noticia inquietante que afectará a todos nosotros son los continuos asesinatos impunes de los defensores y protectores del medio ambiente. Ellos mismos se están convirtiendo en una especie en peligro de extinción, al igual que los animales y las plantas que tratan de salvar.

    Esos crímenes atroces no respetan las fronteras nacionales o continentes. En particular, en América Latina, con sus vastos recursos naturales han ocurrido muchas de esas acciones perturbadoras.

    En el pequeño y hermoso país que es Costa Rica, una vez llamada la “Suiza de América” y nombrada por Jacques Cousteau, “Isla de paz”, la protección de las especies animales y las reservas naturales ha disminuido dramáticamente.

    En mayo pasado un joven conservacionista, Jairo Mora, dedicado a la protección de las tortugas laúd y sus nidos en las playas de la costa atlántica de Costa Rica, fue asesinado cobardemente en una de sus rondas de patrullaje. Junto con cuatro mujeres voluntarias extranjeras, tres estadounidenses y una española, fueron emboscados y secuestrados la noche del 31 de mayo. Los hombres encapuchados ataron a las mujeres en una casa abandonada en una área remota de la provincia de Limón. Jairo fue obligado a ir con sus captores y pocas horas después su cuerpo fue encontrado en una de sus queridas playas con signos de tortura y asfixia. Este no es un hecho aislado en un país que ha sido distinguido con el reconocimiento del mundo por sus esfuerzos para proteger sus ricos recursos naturales y la eliminación de su ejército en 1948. Es una de las 15 naciones de todo el mundo que no mantiene fuerzas militares. Ahora, la situación es muy diferente en el país de Oscar Arias, ganador del Premio Nobel de la Paz y en dos ocasiones Presidente de Costa Rica.

    Como un claro ejemplo de la forma en que ha cambiado la antigua “Isla de paz”, su actual presidente, Laura Chinchilla, en una de sus primeras declaraciones públicas el 30 de octubre de 2010, pidió – “la colaboración para hacer frente a los grupos radicales de las ONG del medio ambiente, que no les gusta el desarrollo y quieren ver a Costa Rica como un museo de historia natural “.
    www.noalamina.org/mineria-latinoamerica/mineria-costa-rica/presidenta-de-costa-rica-llama-a-combatir-a-grupos-ambientalistas-2

    Con ese tipo de mentalidad, no son de sorprender acontecimientos como el asesinato de Jairo y las enormes dificultades que los defensores del medio ambiente están enfrentando en Costa Rica.

    En la inmensidad de América del Sur, Brasil alberga el ecosistema más grande del planeta, la Amazonia y el poderoso río Amazonas.   Durante muchos años, numerosos protectores de la flora y la fauna han sido acosados e incluso asesinados. El legendario Chico Méndez, también conocido como “El Gandhi de la Amazonia” luchó incansablemente tratando de salvar la selva tropical. Fue ejecutado en diciembre de 1988, hecho que provocó un movimiento mundial en contra de la destrucción de la mayor selva tropical en la Tierra. Después de Chico, muchos otros activistas y periodistas, verdaderos héroes que trabajan a menudo en el anonimato, han pagado con su vida por haberse atrevido a oponerse a la aniquilación del medioambiente que podría alterar la faz del planeta. Esa larga lista incluye a una monja estadounidense de 72 años, Dorothy Stang, asesinada el 12 de febrero de 2005.  Dorothy luchó tenazmente contra la industria maderera y su deforestación de la selva amazónica.

    Ahora tenemos que añadir otro nombre, el biólogo español Gonzalo Alonso Hernández. Gonzalo fue asesinado el 6 de agosto de este año, su cuerpo torturado fue arrojado a las aguas de una región que amaba y protegía.  Aquí tenemos a un alto ejecutivo de una empresa de telefonía española, Telefónica, que llegó a Brasil en 2003 y dejó la compañía en 2005 después de enamorarse de la selva que lo rodeaba, dedicando su vida exclusivamente a la labor ambiental. Se destacó por su defensa de los ríos, las plantas y animales en peligro de extinción, denunciando a los cazadores furtivos y pirómanos que abren espacios para ranchos y granjas.

    En otro país importante, México, bendecido por la naturaleza, esa peligrosa situación es similar para los ecologistas y activistas. La lista de crímenes en contra de los defensores del medio ambiente es impresionante. En los últimos dos años por lo menos trece defensores han perdido la vida luchando contra las grandes empresas mineras, madereras, los mega-desarrolladores e incluso los carteles de la droga.  Es una lucha desigual, debido a la corrupción del sistema legal mexicano.

    Noé Vázquez Ortiz, fue asesinado a pedradas el 2 de agosto de este año a causa de su oposición a la represa hidroeléctrica de El Naranjal, en el estado de Veracruz, un estado ya plagado por los continuos asesinatos de periodistas. Él era el líder de los campesinos que tratan de detener la privatización del agua que afecta a los ríos y lagos y amenaza sus costumbres y forma de vida.

    Sólo para citar otro caso, en octubre de 2012, Ismael Solorio y su esposa Manuela Solís, fueron asesinados debido a su defensa y apoyo a los derechos de los mineros que se oponen a la poderosa empresa canadiense, Mag Silver en San José del Progreso, Oaxaca. Las condiciones de trabajo de los mineros son miserables. La destrucción del medio ambiente es enorme. Unos días antes de su muerte, Ismael había denunciado la posibilidad de derramamiento de sangre si el Gobierno no intervenía. Sus advertencias fueron totalmente ignoradas.

    Nosotros en NAPF creemos que es nuestro deber moral denunciar estos y muchos otros crímenes en contra de los que dedican su vida en beneficio de sus semejantes. Exigimos justicia y que mantengamos vivo el nombre y la memoria de estos héroes caídos.

    Rubén Arvizu es Director para América Latina de la Nuclear Age Peace Foundation y Embajador Global del Pacto Climático de Ciudades. Él colabora con la organización de Jean-Michel Cousteau, Ocean Futures Society, como Director para América Latina y productor de cine.

  • Sadako Peace Day: planting Hiroshima survivor sapling

    Santa Barbara, CA – The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) will host the 19th Annual Sadako Peace Day to remember the victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and all innocent victims of war. The event will be held August 6, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., under the beautiful oaks and eucalyptus trees in the Sadako Peace Garden at La Casa de Maria Retreat Center, 800 El Bosque Road, in Montecito.

    This year’s program will include the planting of a Gingko biloba sapling, grown from one of Hiroshima’s atomic bombing survivor trees. The sapling will be brought from Hiroshima to Santa Barbara by Nassrine Azimi, Co-Founder of Green Legacy Hiroshima, a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading world-wide the seeds and saplings of Hiroshima survivor trees. It is the first of its kind to be planted anywhere in the United States.

    There will be music, poetry and reflections commemorating the story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl from Hiroshima who died of radiation-induced leukemia as a result of the atomic bombing. Japanese legend holds that one’s wish will be granted upon folding 1000 paper cranes. Sadako set out to fold those 1,000 paper cranes. On the wings of one she wrote, “I will write peace on your wings, and you will fly all over the world.” Sadly, Sadako died without regaining her health. Students in Japan were so moved by her story they began folding paper cranes, too. Today the paper crane is an international symbol of peace. And a statue of Sadako now stands in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

    The event is a time to reflect on the past in order to build a more peaceful future. This year’s keynote speaker will be Dr. Robert Dodge, long-time peace activist and co-chairman of Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions. He is a NAPF board member, and a frequent speaker about nuclear security.

    There will also be a paper crane folding workshop by Peace Crane Project and refreshments after the ceremony. The event is free and open to the public.

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    For further information, contact Sandy Jones at sjones@napf.org or (805) 965-3443.

    The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation — The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s mission is to educate and advocate for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons and to empower peace leaders.  Founded in 1982, the Foundation is comprised of individuals and organizations worldwide who realize the imperative for peace in the Nuclear Age. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with consultative status to the United Nations.  For more information, visit www.wagingpeace.org.

  • We All Have a Role to Play

    Vaya aquí para la versión española.


    David Krieger


    Nuclear weapons are game-changing devices.  They are more than weapons.  They are annihilators, capable of causing catastrophic damage to cities and countries.  They have the destructive power to bring civilization to its knees.  They could cause the extinction of most or all complex life on the planet. 


    One of the great moral leaders of our time, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, wrote: “Nuclear weapons are an obscenity.  They are the very antithesis of humanity, of goodness in this world.  What security do they help establish?  What kind of world community are we actually seeking to build when nations possess and threaten to use arms that can wipe all of humankind off the globe in an instant?”


    Nuclear weapons threaten the very future of humankind.  They are immoral and illegal.  They cause indiscriminate harm and unnecessary suffering.  Their damage cannot be contained in either time or space.  Their existence demands a response from us.  We must unite, as never before, to protect against this overriding technological threat of our own making or face the consequences. 


    But, you may ask, what can you do? 


    First, you can take the threat seriously and recognize that your own involvement can make a difference.  This is not an issue that can be left to political leaders alone.  They have dealt with it for over two-thirds of a century, and the danger persists.


    Second, join with others in working for a more peaceful and nuclear weapon-free world.  The voices of citizens can make a difference, and the aggregation of those voices an even greater difference.  Citizens must stand up and speak out as if the very future depends upon what they say and do, because it does.


    The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation provides many ways to amplify the voices of citizens.  We believe that a path to a world free of nuclear weapons lies through US leadership, and the path to US leadership lies through an active and involved citizenry.  You can keep up to date with our monthly Sunflower e-newsletter and you can participate in pressing for change through our Action Alert Network. 


    Third, become a peace leader, one who holds hope and wages peace.  Never lose hope, and actively work to build a more peaceful world.  Live with compassion, commitment, courage and creativity.  Do your part to build a world you can be proud to pass on to your children and grandchildren and all children of the future, a beautiful planet free of the threat of nuclear annihilation. 


    If you are a painter, paint.  If you are a writer, write.  If you are a singer, sing.  If you are a citizen, participate.  Find a way to give your talents to building a better world in which the threat of war and nuclear devastation does not hang over our common future – a world in which poverty and hunger are alleviated, children are educated, human rights are upheld, and the environment is protected.  These are the great challenges of our time and each of us has an important role to play.

  • 2011 Evening for Peace Message

    Our theme tonight is “From Hiroshima to Hope.” 


    The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked the end of a terrible war, more costly in human life than any previous war in human history.  The atomic bombings also marked the beginning of the Nuclear Age, an age characterized by its immense destructive power, a power that could leave civilization in shambles.


    In a mad arms race between the US and USSR between 1945 and 1990, nuclear weapons were created and tested that were thousands of times more powerful than those that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the height of the nuclear arms race in 1986, there were over 70,000 nuclear weapons in the world, with humanity precariously balanced on the rim of a nuclear precipice.  Today, more than 20 years after the end of the Cold War, there are still more than 20,000 nuclear weapons in the arsenals of nine countries.


    Nuclear Age Peace Foundation


    The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation was created in 1982 to confront the challenges of this new era dominated by nuclear threat.  Our mission at the Foundation is: “To educate and advocate for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons and to empower peace leaders.” We do this in many action-oriented ways, including through our Action Alert Network, Peace Leadership Program and this Evening for Peace.


    We hope that all of you with us this evening, and particularly the students, will be inspired to become Peace Leaders.  We need you and the world needs you.


    In this past year, the Foundation held a conference on the Dangers of Nuclear Deterrence at which we took a hard look at the myths surrounding nuclear deterrence and developed the Santa Barbara Declaration, Reject Nuclear Deterrence: An Urgent Call to Action. This Declaration was placed in the Congressional Record by Representative Lois Capps.


    We also worked with the Swiss government in holding a conference at the United Nations in Geneva on the need to lower the alert status of nuclear weapons.  There are still some 2,000 nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert.  This is truly MAD.


    We held another conference in Geneva this year supported by the government of Kazakhstan on the need to bring the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty into force.  President Clinton signed this treaty in 1996, but the Senate voted down ratification in 1999 and still has not ratified it 15 years after it was signed. 


    The Foundation’s membership has grown to nearly 50,000. We have more than 2,500 participants in our Peace Leadership program. More than 600,000 unique viewers visit our websites annually. We have sent more than 70,000 messages on timely nuclear issues to political leaders this year through our Action Alert Network, and we’ve had some recent successes, including stopping a missile launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the International Day of Peace.


    We have also networked with like-minded organizations throughout the world on our common goal of achieving a more peaceful and nuclear weapon-free world.  In addition, 12 hardworking and committed interns from around the country have participated in many aspects of the Foundation’s work in 2011.


    The Hibakusha


    In all our work at the Foundation, we have taken strength from the spirit of Hiroshima and its survivors, the hibakusha.  Hiroshima is more than a city. As the first city to be attacked by a nuclear bomb, it is a symbol of the wanton destructiveness of nuclear weapons.  Along with the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki three days later, some 220,000 people died by the end of 1945 as a result of the two atomic bombings.


    The survivors of the bombings, the hibakusha, have had an unconquerable spirit of hope and commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons. They have not only rebuilt their flattened cities and their lives, but they have taken it upon themselves to speak out so that their past does not become the future of some other city or of humanity as a whole. The hibakusha have said, “Nuclear weapons and human beings cannot co-exist.” They have stood firmly for a human future, seeking the abolition of all nuclear weapons. 


    At the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation we share the passion, commitment and hope of the hibakusha for achieving a world free of nuclear weapons. 


    Shigeko Sasamori, thank you for all you’ve done.  Your life and the lives of Kaz Suyeishi and Kikuko Otake, and all the other hibakusha you represent this evening give us hope and strength to persevere. 


    So does the life of our next honoree.


    Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba


    It is now my privilege to introduce Tadatoshi Akiba, the recipient of the Foundation’s 2011 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award.  In his early career, he was a professor of mathematics at Tufts University and later a professor of humanities at Hiroshima Shudo University.  He served in the Japanese Diet, Japan’s House of Representatives, from 1990 to 1999.  He then served as the Mayor of Hiroshima from 1999 to 2011.  During his 12 years as mayor, he served as the president of Mayors for Peace, and oversaw the growth of this organization from some 440 members to nearly 5,000.  Under Mayor Akiba’s leadership, Mayors for Peace initiated the 2020 Vision Campaign, calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons by the year 2020, and also the campaign, Cities Are Not Targets, a petition drive that asserts, “No!  You may not target cities.  You may not target children.”
    For his work for peace, Mayor Akiba has received many awards, including the 2010 Ramon Magsaysay Award, also known as the Asian Nobel Prize.


    I have known Mayor Akiba since shortly after he became mayor, when I visited him in Hiroshima.  I have admired his energy and eloquence on behalf of the hibakusha of Hiroshima and Mayors for Peace.  He has given leadership to mayors throughout the world to take a stand for abolishing nuclear weapons.  He is an honorable man who is dedicated to eliminating the nuclear weapons threat to humanity and all life. 


    On behalf of the Directors and members of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, I am pleased to present the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s 2011 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award to Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba.