Today. My dilemma in writing about nuclear issues.

This might be a peculiarly Australian dilemma. I don’t know. The thing is – most people seem able to tolerate a bit of criticism of the nuclear industry. And indeed, when I post articles on my websites – nuclear-news.net and antinuclear.net, or on my newsletter, – that’s OK.

But if I bring in the subject of Ukraine, or especially of Gaza and Israel, – people get upset. What has that got to do with the nuclear industry? (Well, a lot really – as both situations bring us ever closer to the brink of nuclear war).

The big problem is this. As part of an Australian, and indeed worldwide, movement, for a safe clean nuclear-free world, my stuff is accepted as worthwhile. But, when I digress into examining what is going on in Ukraine, or worse, in Israel – then I am no longer to be trusted. Indeed, I am sometimes being called a Putin-lover, a communist. a terrorist – and especially anti-semitic.

As a consequence, then my anti-nuclear coverage is not to be trusted, either. It’s OK to be anti-nuclear – that’s a respectable opinion, as long as you’re pro Ukraine and pro Israel.

I really don’t know how to deal with this. It seems that, to be respected at all, it is necessary to conform to certain dogmas, such as “Russia is always evil” and “Israelis are holy victims”.

In my view – Putin is a murderous thug, but Russia is not always to blame, and Russian policies and aspirations should be viewed fairly.

Similarly, I think that the Jews, over history, have been terribly persecuted and murdered, but that doesn’t give Israel the licence to now do mass murder of the Gazan people.

There’s a dreadful conformity in Australia, and perhaps in all supposedly-white, English speaking countries. We must side with Ukraine, no matter what. And we must not be seen to be anti-semitic, no matter what.

So – I am left with the dilemma – should I ignore those two nuclear-war-trigger situations, in order to sound credible about nuclear matters?

Should I act “nice” about what Israel is doing, and pretend that I don’t notice? That is all too easy to do, in Australia, with its relentless media focus on sport.

March 2, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes

9 Comments »

You are a teacher and spreader of peace maam. Please continue. Some of Those who criticize you hypocritically and ignorantly, are trapped by brainwashing. Some are bots. Some are operatives. This is a critically dark time for good people. Humans may not overcome this but , i pray for the spirit of peace and goodness to continue on. The spirit of peace may also save us from nuclear war oblivion. At least your good will, gives some comfort to the many who suffer

Comment by Ngt | March 2, 2024 | Reply
- Thank you.
  It IS good to get such encouragement.
  
  Comment by Christina Macpherson | March 3, 2024 | Reply
Do both but, be careful please. This is so valuable for peace and good. Some of us have cannot do much. Pray for peace compassion goodness. Cherish life. Soothe those in need. Pray those who can help the suffering,can continue. Pray the violence will end

Comment by Peace | March 2, 2024 | Reply
In 1958 Rachel Carson turned her attention to the chilling killoff of birds by ddt. Now 50 percent of all bird species are gone and 75 percent of all insect species are extinct. She was prescient 65 years ago. The kill offs were caused by synthetic pesticides. Now there is also an over abundance of high level radionuclide in the environment as well.
Carson wrote the book Silent Spring (1962), which brought environmental concerns to an unprecedented share of the American people. Silent Spring was met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, it did help a reversal in national pesticide policy, which led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides for a while . Fascist politicians like Trump and Biden have allowed lethal chemicals and pesticides like ddt paraquat and things like asbestos and radionuclides to come back to contaminate the USA with a vengeance.
It’s ironic, that Carson died, of probable environmentally induced breast cancer at 58 while fighting the good fight.
Szilard said that at the rate, that hi level beta gamma and purified alpha radionuclides had contaminated the planet at his time that there would be no viable chromosomes of any organism. left by the early 21st century. He was right.

People go to this site as an alternative to the 99 percent propaganda, lies, hype and public relations pumps on the internet and in corporate media. Most things about nuclear in the usa are outright lies and distortions. Everything covered up. Why do u publish pr and hype rubbish, like anything about musk or billionaires on the moon? The bogus usa economy is crashing . The us national debt accumulates 1 trillion every 100 days. All the bogus money these nasty little crooks have accumumulated, is funny money generated by crooked bankers, phoney fraudulent speculaive investments schemes, arms brokers, polluters, pyramid scheme crypto world and wall street casinos. The dollar is losing its status internationally. Banks are crashing
The crooked politicians have to have the proxy wars at the behest of bloodthirsty Plutarchs to keep the delusion of solvency floating.

The weather , environmental poisons like petrochemicL poisons radionuclides and pesticides. Are wiping other creatures and human monkeys out. Heat and cold hurricanes, floods, wildfire with Megatrons of radioactive poisons in the smoke and pestilence are killing off drooplets of weakened people and children.
Moronic billionaires know nothing about biochemistry or gamma rays or cosmic radiation or anything really
Ther pestilence ,massive heart disease, cancer and dementia child mortality and morbidity from environmental poisons are the major killers now. Not cigarettes or booze or crime etc like the bullshit govt and msm crams down our throats.
The major killers in this insane, militarist, nuclear west is not cigarettes or booze its heart disease , lung disease, brain disease, immune system disease, diabetes, thyroid teratogenicity, cancer child hood morbitities from environmental poisons. This world is getting to be barely habitable by dna and protein based organisms., Space fiction fantasy is pure diarrhea delusion. By next year the demented brain washed masses of the usa will put another deranged crook into power , at the proxy of the thuroughly out of touch and brain adled moronic oligarchs. They know things are crashing.
This husk of a thing will finish off, what is left of radionuclide shithole usa with the the most nuclear waste, most reactors most nuke bombs nost fallouts most nuke bomb explosions, most nuclear accidents, oldest reactors, and bombs most plutonium most and largest nuke sites in the world.
The generals will goto town with tactical nukes yada yada yada thermonuclear as the insanity progresses. Why even put up any advertizing or billionaire hype . It is so disrespectful and things are so messed uprry

Comment by BARIT | March 3, 2024 | Reply
- Thank you, Barit. Great that you paid tribute to that environmental heroine Rachel Carson.
  You sure do paint a terrible picture of how things are going in the world. I am puzzled that you accuse me of publishing “pr and hype rubbish about Musk or billionaires on the moon”. My opinion of Musk is that he is a dangerous narcissistic sociopath, who should not have the influence that he does. The moon adventures are a wasteful folly, leading on to space militarism. So I don’t see any point in ignoring these dangerous things.
  
  I am also puzzled that you don’t count cigarettes or booze amongst the environmental hazards. Cigarette smoking as a cause of lung cancer has been thoroughly proven, especially by the work of Sir Richard Doll. There is ample evidence of the harm done by alcohol (over-) consumption. I didn’t know that Szilard warned on genetic consequences of ionising radiation.
  
  I basically agree with what you say. Still, there are many thousands of good people pout there, working to reverse environmental damage, and spare us from the headlong nuclear-military-industrial-media-economy rush to omnicide.
  
  Comment by Christina Macpherson | March 3, 2024 | Reply
  - Wake up! There will be no moon bases or mars bases. It is fairy tale science fiction and hype. They have a barely adequate, life support supply chain, to the shoddy international space station, with a few astronauts. All the 2001 space odyssey crap was delusional. The crappy little capsules, joined together in a hovel and, called a space station is constantly threatened by space debri. The lies that musk has even sent one shuttle to it is pure bullshit. Like the bullshit of self driving semi trucks delivering goods in the usa. It is done mostly by nasa and the eu.
    
    They do know that space station guiniea pig people-astronauts, have long term health effects from long stays up there.
    The supply chains, money, and resources needed are not feasable for any space colonization or probably evene interplanatary missions. The environmenal cost for a space station on the moon and human mars missions is nonsense espececually at this point in time in human history. It
    will destroy whats left of envuronment on earth.
    Any dumn sukers that went for it would not last long, from cosmic rays and myriads of other problems
    
    They do not even track chronic pesticide, pcb, plastic or radionuclide accumulation in humans. Coronors or the govt. Yet coroners say cigarettes and booze are the number 1 and 2 killers in the usa and those only account for a small percentage of the chronic related deaths in the usa. How can u say that?
    Just because they do not track it, does not mean it is not occuring. The who,said only a few hundred deaths occured from chernobyl yet scientists, that were there said there were more than a million. So rediculous.
    Quite a few drinkers with bad livers and smokers with bad lungs probably also succumbed from the chronic effects of envronmental poisons and air pollutiin in industrial countries like the usa. Booze and smoking are not environmental toxins they are self administered chronic poisonings .
    
    Comment by BARIT | March 3, 2024
  - Wow!
    Indeed!
    One small point – Booze and smoking have been powerfully promoted by rich, lying, corporate big boys. They started the smoking propaganda in a big way – even co-opted Red Cross – to give out free cigarettes in World War 1. That cemented the association (helped greatly by Hollywood ,the great corporate advertiser) to cement the belief that cigarette-smoking was strong and manly. In later decades, it was skilfully promoted to women as “feminist” and “equal rights” etc. Today, alcohol sales enjoy widescale promotion with both advertising and the media – alcohol use very prominent in TV dramas. Booze and smoking might be “self-administered”, but in a social environment awash with corporate promotion..
    
    Comment by Christina Macpherson | March 3, 2024
  - Christina this is right, people can see cigarettes and booze, but the can’t see nuclear radioactivity. that is why they won’t say anything about nuclear power plants, and their highly radioactive waste. That has to be keep sefe stored away from any life for around 100 000 years before it is not deadly anymore.
    
    Comment by yukonwerner | March 3, 2024
The west are imperial exploitaion societies, that are phoney and unsustainable. They are self destructively greedy and overconsumptive from the top down. They promote anything for funny money, even if is killing them and their loved ones.
The supposed number one killer is cigarettes. No 2 booze. Number 3 infectious agents, number 4 drugs.
People of these exploitive societies work to consume and pollute more. The thralls are worked to death with the promise of some sort of benefit.
There is cognitive dissonance, because of the lies, pressure and anxiety, induced by the mania and irrationality of it all. So, yes self poisoning is a secondary effect, of the environmental poisoning and degradation. It is ironic that the rulers hold these afflictions up, as main causes of mortality and morbitity, to obscure the most ovious insidiously poisonous toxins that now engulf us .
They use the supposed immorality of using self intoxicants, that they make fortunes from, as scapegoats to incriminate the majority of us, and exonerate themselves from their malfeasance. More greed and malicious avarice.
The mass production of food and energy with the most dangerous poisons possible, has increased populations and some lifespans, but the illusion is crumbling catastrophically.

Comment by BARIT | March 4, 2024 | Reply