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Helen Caldicott has the rare ability to combine scienc...)
Helen Caldicott has the rare ability to combine science with passion, logic with love, and urgency with humor. ?Naomi Klein
From the leader and spokeswoman of the antinuclear movement comes a revised and updated edition of this groundbreaking, widely acclaimed classic. Exploring dangerous global trends such as ozone depletion, global warming, toxic pollution, food contamination, and deforestation, Helen Caldicott presents a picture of our world and the forces that threaten its existence. As always, she gives a prescription for a cure and cause for hope, rallying readers to action with the contention that our fight for the planet will draw its strength from love for the Earth itself.
(The world-renowned antinuclear activist's "expertly argue...)
The world-renowned antinuclear activist's "expertly argued" (The Guardian) case against nuclear energy.
In a world torn apart by wars over oil, politicians have increasingly begun to look for alternative energy sourcesand their leading choice is nuclear energy. Among the myths that have been spread over the years about nuclear-powered electricity are that it does not cause global warming or pollution, that it is inexpensive, and that it is safe.
Helen Caldicott's look at the actual costs and environmental consequences of nuclear energy belies the incessant barrage of nuclear industry propaganda. Caldicott "reveals truths," Martin Sheen has said, "that confirm we must take positive action now if we are to make a difference." In fact, nuclear power contributes to global warming; the true cost of nuclear power is prohibitive, with taxpayers picking up most of the tab; there's simply not enough uranium in the world to sustain nuclear power over the long term; and the potential for a catastrophic accident or a terrorist attack far outweighs any benefits. Concluding chapters detail alternative sustainable energy sources that are the key to a clean, green future.
Crisis Without End: The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe
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On the second anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, an...)
On the second anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, an international panel of leading medical and biological scientists, nuclear engineers, and policy experts assembled at the prestigious New York Academy of Medicine. A project of the Helen Caldicott Foundation and co-sponsored by Physicians for Social Responsibility, this gathering was a response to widespread concerns that the media and policy makers had been far too eager to move past what are clearly deep and lasting impacts for the Japanese people and for the world. This was the first comprehensive attempt to address the health and environmental damage done by one of the worst nuclear accidents of our times.
The only document of its kind, Crisis Without End represents an unprecedented look into the profound aftereffects of Fukushima. In accessible terms, leading experts from Japan, the United States, Russia, and other nations weigh in on the current state of knowledge of radiation-related health risks in Japan, impacts on the worlds oceans, the question of low-dosage radiation risks, crucial comparisons with Chernobyl, health and environmental impacts on the United States (including on food and newborns), and the unavoidable implications for the U.S. nuclear energy industry.
Crisis Without End is both essential reading and a major corrective to the public record on Fukushima.
Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do (Norton History of Modern Europe)
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"As a physician, I contend that nuclear technology thre...)
"As a physician, I contend that nuclear technology threatens life on our planet with extinction. If present trends continue, the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink will soon be contaminated with enough radioactive pollutants to pose a potential health hazard far greater than any plague humanity has ever experienced."--Helen Caldicott
First published in 1978, Helen Caldicott's cri du coeur about the dangers of nuclear power became an instant classic. In the intervening sixteen years much has changed--the Cold War is over, nuclear arms production has decreased, and there has been a marked growth in environmental awareness. But the nuclear genie has not been forced back into the bottle. The disaster at Chernobyl and the "incidents" at other plants around the world have disproven the image of "safe" nuclear power. Nuclear waste dumping has further poisoned our environment, and developing nuclear technology in the Third World poses still further risks.
In this completely revised, updated, and expanded edition, Dr. Caldicott defines for the 1990s the dangers of this madness--including the insidious influence of the nuclear power industry and the American government's complicity in medical "experiments" using nuclear material--and calls on us to accept the moral challenge to fight against it, both for our own sake and for that of future generations.
Sleepwalking to Armageddon: The Threat of Nuclear Annihilation
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A frightening but necessary assessment of the threat po...)
A frightening but necessary assessment of the threat posed by nuclear weapons in the twenty-first century, edited by the world’s leading antinuclear activist
With the world’s attention focused on climate change and terrorism, we are in danger of taking our eyes off the nuclear threat. But rising tensions between Russia and NATO, proxy wars erupting in Syria and Ukraine, a nuclear-armed Pakistan, and stockpiles of aging weapons unsecured around the globe make a nuclear attack or a terrorist attack on a nuclear facility arguably the biggest threat facing humanity.
In Sleepwalking to Armageddon, pioneering antinuclear activist Helen Caldicott assembles the world’s leading nuclear scientists and thought leaders to assess the political and scientific dimensions of the threat of nuclear war today. Chapters address the size and distribution of the current global nuclear arsenal, the history and politics of nuclear weapons, the culture of modern-day weapons labs, the militarization of space, and the dangers of combining artificial intelligence with nuclear weaponry, as well as a status report on enriched uranium and a shocking analysis of spending on nuclear weapons over the years.
The book ends with a devastating description of what a nuclear attack on Manhattan would look like, followed by an overview of contemporary antinuclear activism. Both essential and terrifying, this book is sure to become the new bible of the antinuclear movement—to wake us from our complacency and urge us to action.
Loving this Planet: Leading Thinkers Talk About How to Make a Better World
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Ever since quitting her job teaching pediatrics at Harv...)
Ever since quitting her job teaching pediatrics at Harvard Medical School in 1980, Helen Caldicott has worked tirelessly for a safe, sustainable, nuclear-free planet, most recently by hosting a weekly radio show featuring environmentalists and leading activists from around the globe.
Together with some of the most brilliant thinkers and inspiring advocates of our time, Caldicottwhom Meryl Streep has called my inspiration to speak outscrutinizes our unsustainable dependence on nuclear energy; explores how the United States could transition to renewable energy; and raises awareness about a host of other planetary issues, from deforestation and sea-level rise to nuclear arms and the potential health effects of cell phone radiation. Extending well beyond the scope of conventional environmental discussions, these stirring conversations give us Martin Sheen on grassroots movements and unionized labor; Chris Hedges on the costs of standing up for your morals; and award-winning actress Lily Tomlin on contemporary politics, in a sarcastic and witty exchange that is at once hilarious and inspiring.
Loving This Planet offers an accessible overview of the chief environmental and social issues of our time and includes captivating interviews with twenty-five contributors, including Maude Barlow, Bill McKibben, Jonathan Schell, Daniel Ellsberg, and Bob Herbert, among others.
Helen Broinowski Caldicott is an Australian-born American physician, best known for her anti-nuclear activism and for authoring several books which dealt with the issues around nuclear energy and broader environmental concerns.
Background
Helen Broinowski Caldicott was born on August 7, 1938 in Melbourne, Australia. Christened Helen Mary Broinowski, she was the eldest child of Philip Broinowski, the manager of a paint factory, and Mary Mona Enyd (Coffey) Broinowski, an interior designer. Where her father was loving, Helen's mother was emotionally distant. At 18 months she was left in the care of a stranger for two weeks.
Soon after Helen's first birthday, in August 1939, Australia went to war, allied with Great Britain against Nazi Germany. For the next six years, her childhood was affected by wartime life, with clothing, gas and food rationing. Her father died of cancer at age 51 after a lifetime of constructing houses with asbestos; she often assisted him by handing him the asbestos material. Her mother died at 58.
Education
As a young child, Caldicott did not fit in at school and was often teased. As a teenager, she read Australian author Nevil Shute's novel On the Beach, about the devastation after a nuclear war, and was shocked into activism for life. After that, she read everything she could about nuclear weapons, appalled that scientists made them in the first place. In 1956 she entered the University of Adelaide Medical School, where she learned more about the effects of radiation, especially on babies and children who are much more susceptible than adults. In 1961 she graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, second in her class that final year. Between 1966 and 1969 she had a fellowship at Harvard Medical School in Boston. She returned to Adelaide in 1970 and, after working in general practice for a few more years, she returned to medical school to study pediatrics. As an intern at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, she set up a clinic for sufferers of cystic fibrosis and became a specialist in treating this hereditary, and often fatal, childhood disease.
Career
Caldicott's interest in activism began to surface publicly when in 1971 she warned the Australian public about the French government's plans to conduct atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the South Pacific. She backed her arguments against nuclear energy by pointing out the extent to which nuclear fallout was already present in food and water. She was able to build successful coalitions with the public, other scientists, and the media in opposing the French testing; the results of her activism included boycotts of French products and demonstrations. In another victory for Caldicott and Australian anti-nuclear activists, the Labor Party was elected into office in 1972 with opposition to testing as part of their platform. Caldicott also pushed for an Australian ban on the export of uranium, a substance used in the process to create nuclear energy. The suggested ban was initially opposed by mining and government interests but in 1975 she succeeded in getting the Australian Council of Trade Unions to ban the mining, transport, and sale of uranium. The ban remained in place until 1982.
Caldicott continued her medical career when in 1975, she and her family relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, so that her husband could pursue a research appointment at Harvard. Initially working at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston, she also served as a pediatric instructor at Harvard Medical School between 1977-1980. She published her first book in 1978, Nuclear Madness: What Can You Do! The book, which she co-authored with Nancy Herrington and Nahum Stiskin, explained for the layperson the issues and the consequences of nuclear technology. After the book was published, Caldicott made numerous appearances on television and the lecture circuit to promote the book's message. By 1981, the emphasis in her life was activism rather than medicine.
Caldicott's antinuclear activism did not remain limited to authoring books. In 1978 she took charge of and revived a pre-existing organization called Physicians for Social Responsibility. Redirecting the organization's vision to focus on the health risks of nuclear fallout, Caldicott increased membership in the organization to 30, 000 by 1982, particularly after the Three Mile Island incident in Pennsylvania during 1979. In 1980, she took her organizational skills further and founded a lobbying group, Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament. Organizational leadership was not without growing pains, however; Caldicott stepped down as president of Physicians for Social Responsibility in 1983, claiming that her vision and the vision of the membership had diverged too widely. The organization had become increasingly bureaucratic and some members found her either overpowering or lacking in ability to lobby and lead. One climax of her activist role may have occurred in 1982, when she and others spoke to a crowd of one million at a peace rally in New York City's Central Park.
In an attempt to make further impact in U. S. politics, Caldicott lent her name and efforts to the Mondale presidential campaign in 1984, even though he largely ignored her ideas. She was stunned when his running mate, Geraldine Ferraro, pledged to pushed the nuclear button if necessary. Mondale's defeat served to crush Caldicott's psyche even further. She continued to publish books that addressed nuclear energy; Missile Envy: The Arms Race and Nuclear War was published in 1984. She also published If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth in 1992, the book went beyond nuclear energy and addressed a range of environmental issues. In 1996, she published her autobiography, A Desperate Passion.
In the late 1990s Caldicott remained a vocal opponent of nuclear energy when she spoke out against a U. S. proposal to sell nuclear reactors to China; a deal that was mentioned when Chinese Premier Jiang Zemin visited the U. S. in late 1997 to discuss human rights in China. She criticized the fact that the deal was being offered as a solution to global warming, claiming that tremendous amounts of fossil fuel were utilized in the construction of the reactors and of the storage rods for spent nuclear fuel. She also remarked on the irony of the human rights issue, claiming that nuclear reactors in China would violate human rights and would impact human life, either by death, genetic destruction, or disease. She continued to discuss her views in the media by hosting a New York radio show called "Fair Dinkum. "
Caldicott generally lacked trust in most political leaders, although she was a great admirer of Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union and personally thanked him for ending the Cold War. She had less respect for then-president Ronald Reagan, whom she met in 1983 and who astounded her with what she called his ignorance on nuclear issues. She also advocated for an increase of women in political positions, stating that even though women made up 53 percent of the American population, they comprised only two percent of the congressional delegation.
Views
Caldicott has always maintained that the United States needed to set an example for the rest of the world in carrying out sound environmental practices. She felt that in particular, corporations needed to be more concerned with the health of people and less concerned with the bottom line at the expense of the environment. Additionally, she stated that the media needed to be doing a better job of educating people on global environmental issues.
Connections
In December 1962 Helen married Bill Caldicott, a pediatric radiologist. Over the next several years the couple had three children: Phillip (born 1964), Penny (born 1965), and William (born 1967). In 1987 her husband decided to leave their marriage.