nuclear-news

The present state of play of the Nuclear Free Movement

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

Nuclear weapons. The focus has been on this issue throughout February. This weekend, experts in studying nuclear weapons and war have been gathering in New York at the Symposium: The Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction. It’s streaming live – and podcasts, transcripts and a book will later be available.

This week – Lots of (not very good) news on nuclear weaponry and war risks, e.g USA law-makers wanting to spend $577 billion on defense, China, Russia, India ramping up their nuclear weaponry.  North Korea, too.

This month, the focus on http://www.nuclear-news.net, (and on http://www.antinuclear.net) will be on the growing movement for a clean nuclear-free planet.  At the same time, a global revolution is happening at extraordinary speed – the change from “top-down”  “vertically integrated” systems to “small scale or “horizontal” systems.  Some business examples – Airbnb, Taskrabbit, Uber,  They work through the “digital ecosystem” . Political examples – extreme religious activist groups. So it’s not all good. But most of it is good– based on trust between individuals, building “reputational capital” between strangers with a common vision.

The nuclear lobby has no grasp of this 21st Century transition.

Even the current nuclear PR for Small Modular Reactors is based on huge  centrally organised, government funded, mass purchase and mass distribution – imposed from above.  Compare that with the millions of homes and small businesses and institutions where individuals made the choice for solar energy – it was not imposed by government.

The clean planet movement is happening at the local level, most often led by indigenous people   – and they are linking up globally.  The new digital ecosytem has opened  the way for millions of people to work together for a healthy nuclear-free planet.

March 1, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes