CONFERENCES, PROJECTS, PROPOSALS
VIDEO - A World Without Nuclear Weapons - Utopian?Davos Conference - Gareth Evans et al. 90 mins
AUDIO: N Disarmament conference -- (with transcript) ABC Australia Radio 30 mins
Rebecca Johnson, Joseph Cirincione, Richard Broinowski
VIDEO: Restoring the NPT (86 mins) - Deepti Choubey, Carnegie conference
CUNY TV Hiroshima Day special on the 2010 NPT Prep-Com (7-min)
"The way to get rid of the bombs is to get rid of the bombs"
At the height of the Cold War, Admiral Gayler in a New York Times Magazine article proposed as a bold first step in nuclear disarmament an immediate 50% cut in US and Russian weapons and delivery systems; everything would count as equal. No quibbling, no delays.
In the new era in which both US and Russian leaders call for a world without nuclear weapons, the time has come for these and other initiatives to be reviewed, revised and blogged into readiness for presentation to nuclear governments.
Your proposals invited.
Examples:
Key to Defusing the Nuclear Threat - Martin Hellman
DIVEST
A world boycott/divestiture of the N-bomb Makers:
BAE,
Boeing,
Northrop-Grumman,
Honeywell,
Finmeccanica,
Safran,
United Technologies
GenCorp
are excluded from investment by government pension funds in Norway
DE-ALERT
The US and Russia still have thousands of nuclear bombs on hair trigger. Obama has promised to work with Medvedev to move off Cold-War alert status. It can be done easily, quickly and simply. In 1999 by order of Prime Minister Blair the UK lowered alert launch of their nuclear bombs from a "time to fire" of "a few minutes" to "several days." No announcement was made. Such executive action could be taken jointly by Presidential decree in Russia and the US.
"The big five should recognize the paramount importance of standing down the world’s arsenals and extending the principle equally to all nuclear states – including themselves. Developing and putting into practice a new global consensus on de-alerting would go far to induce other nations to cooperate on the host of other vexing proliferation and safety hazards that still beset the nuclear universe."
Bruce Blair - Center for Defense Information
DE-ALERTING FAQ
“I really strongly believe in de-alerting. We still have land-based missiles on hair-trigger alert as do the Russians, and we each say we do it because of the other side. The truth is that neither side needs to be on hair-trigger alert anymore. We could create a delay of a week. Move the warheads somewhere else.
David E. Hoffman (author of The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy,"
UPDATE: "Dead Hand" wins 2010 Pulizer
See also:
Reframing Nuclear De-Alert - Swiss/New Zealand report for EastWest Institute
UN endorses re-framing de-alerting proposal
Hair-Trigger: The Forgotten Danger
Lowering N Alert – Walter Pincus, Washington Post
De-alerting: The First Step - Arjun Makhijani
Clarifying de-alerting: Stephen Starr
DE-ACTIVATE
"Pit stuffing" can quickly and easily deactivate nuclear bombs. Any nuclear bomb can be permanently de-activated in two minutes by a simple procedure called pit-stuffing. It is irreversible and easily verifiable.
"Pit-stuffing has the potential to be a remarkable new tool in the arms control toolbox, enabling fast dramatic reductions in nuclear arms -- and verification that those arms have really been dismantled. This approach could make a huge contribution to the goal of ensuring the "transparency" and "irreversibility" of nuclear arms reductions, repeatedly agreed to by Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin. This technology can offer policy-makers new options -- and deprive them of excuses for not pursuing deep, transparent, and irreversible reductions in nuclear arms."
Matthew Bunn - Federation American Scientists Report
HOSTAGES FOR PEACE
As a confidence-building gesture, children of government and military leaders in nations with nuclear weapons should live and study in the major cities of other nations with nuclear weapons.
DE-FUND
The tax forms of US (and other nuclear states) be adjusted to permit taxpayers to designate what percentage of the defense budget should go to the military and what should go to disarmament and conflict resolution.
THE CONTINUING DILEMMA
At the United Nations in 1968 Khrushchev called for nuclear abolition in 4 years. In 1984 Gorbachev said the US and Russia could get rid of their bombs in 15 years. Reagan suggested 10 years. Mayors for Peace, the European Parliament, World Parliamentarians and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation call for abolition by 2020. Global Zero now proposes sometime after 2045. This lacks urgency.
To help hasten the process we offer encouragement, unsolicited advice, criticism and the sometimes antagonistic assistance of an impatient world. And in our daily NEWS SERVICE we will follow, monitor and watchdog progress toward the long-promised and already long-overdue end to the global nuclear threat. Using the rapidly-expanding global social networks of the web "The Last Bomb" will invite, explore, develop and present to government leaders and advisers disarmament proposals and timetables emerging from the blended wisdom of the world's concerned citizens.
PROJECTS
As part of their series of annual Hiroshima Day TV Specials, CUNY TV in New York we will present a new program now in preparation updating the NPT Review at the UN May 2010 and its implications for reaching zero. The program will play on Fri, August sixth and through the weekend. The program will be available globally through the “The Last Bomb” YouTube Channel and Netflix. The earlier People v The Bomb series – launched with support from the War & Peace Foundation and the World Federalists – can be seen on Google here.
We have also arranged to launch a new Russian-language version of the forthcoming program online at Google Video. Links to both versions will be posted on the NPT entry in Wikipedia.
FILMS, VIDEOS, DOCUMENTARIES,
Samples:
FAIL SAFE - Closing seven wrenching minutes
Lisa Putkey explains everything in 3 minutes. MUST SEE!
NUCLEAR TIPPING POINT - Trailer (2min 50secs)
Contact:
worldopinionforum@gmail.com
The Last Bomb is a world service of WORLD OPINION FORUM - a continuing long term project initiated by NGOs including World Federalists, War&Peace Foundation and the UN Earth Day Peace Bell event.
Last Updated Thursday, July 07 2011 @ 05:47 PM EDT
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