An Exclusive Interview with Helen Caldicott

It’s been 40 years since If You Love This Planet won the 1982 Academy Award for Best Documentary.

The film is comprised of a lecture given to students by outspoken nuclear critic Dr. Helen Caldicott, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility in the USA. Her message is clear: disarmament cannot be postponed. Archival footage of the bombing of Hiroshima and images of its survivors seven months after the attack heighten the urgency of her message.

Since it was released, the film has only grown more relevant and authoritative and, on its anniversary, Dr. Caldicott has given an exclusive interview on its context and continued relevance.

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Melting down the Coalition's clean, green nuclear spin

By Michelle Pini, Independent Australia, 22 September 2023

(Image by Dan Jensen)

Managing editor Michelle Pini details why Peter Dutton’s latest nuclear energy push is actually “unhinged”.

APPARENTLY, no one suffered from the Fukushima meltdown.

Or the Chernobyl calamity.

So, we should all move on.

Certainly, with fossil fuels fast running out, the Coalition – led by Dutton and with Littleproud obediently trailing along – has renewed its nuclear push.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton recently declared:

“New nuclear technologies can be plugged into existing grids and work immediately.”

Of course, as Giles Parkinson patiently explains in RenewEconomy:

‘But they can’t, because they don’t exist.’ 

Details.

These Coalition talking points – as well as other fantastical claims by Dutton – were regurgitated this week on ABC’s Q&A, by nuclear groupies, Liberal MP and former... read more

The Oppenheimer imperative: Normalising atomic terror

J Robert Oppenheimer was conflicted over the use of the very weapon he helped to conceive (Image by Dan Jensen)

By Binoy Kampmark, Independent Australia, 22 August 2023

The atomic bomb created the conditions of contingent catastrophe, forever placing the world on the precipice of existential doom. But in doing so, it created a philosophy of acceptable cruelty, worthy extinction and legitimate extermination.

The scenarios for such programs of existential realisation proved endless. Entire departments, schools of thought and think tanks were dedicated to the absurdly criminal notion that atomic warfare could be tenable for the mere reason that someone (or some people) might survive. Despite the relentless march of civil society against nuclear weapons, such insidious thinking persists with a certain obstinate... read more

The Existential and Imminent Threat of Nuclear War

YouTube, 9 August 2023

Scott Ritter warns that America’s stated, strategic plan to destroy Russia will spell the end of life on the planet. Why? The US has unilaterally withdrawn for all nuclear arms treaties that have kept us safe since Reagan signed the first treaty with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. It was “Trust but Verify” back then.

On top of this, the US has declared its “first strike” nuclear policy. Russia will not adopt such a policy, but has declared that any threat on its existence or territory will result in Russia unleashing its entire nuclear arsenal…and we are all dead. Nobody wins in a nuclear war, not even a “limited” nuclear war.

Ritter elaborates on how the US uses soft power, color revolutions to put... read more

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