If You Love This Planet, Dr. Helen Caldicott

September 1, 2008

Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power in Europe

Long time peace activist and Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the United Kingdom, Dr. Kate Hudson talks to Dr. Caldicott about the nuclear energy industry in England, weapons proliferation, and her new book CND - Now More than Ever: The Story of a Peace Movement. This episode also features an excerpt from a speech given by Joseph Cirincione, then Senior Director, Non-Proliferation Project, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Table 1: US Nuclear Weapons in Europe 2008

Derived from more extensive table. Click table or here to download the full table. [June 26 update: weapons removed from UK]

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August 25, 2008

Fighting a Corporate-Owned Planet

Anti-globalization champion Naomi Klein talks about her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. A respected author and columnist, Klein has written three published works including her previous best-seller No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. In this conversation with Dr. Caldicott, we discover what drives Klein's interest in the corporate and international marketplace, and take a closer look at the "disaster capitalism" taking place around the world.

This episode also features an excerpt from the film Helen's War: Portrait of a Dissident, produced by Dr. Caldicott's niece Anna Broinowski. In the excerpt, you will hear clips of interviews with Martin Sheen, Lily Tomlin, Senator Ted Kennedy and the late Christopher Reeve.

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August 18, 2008

Nuclear waste in our midst: a catastrophe waiting to happen

Kevin Kamps is a radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear. Here he discusses the environmental and medical risks associated with low-, medium- and high-level nuclear waste, and other issues surrounding transportation and storage. Nuclear waste, whether in reactors, transported in terrorist-target "Mobile Chernobyl" trucks, trains and barges, or sent to the proposed Yucca Mountain dumpsite, could cause a radioactive disaster. Kamps is the country's leading expert on all aspects of nuclear waste, the Achilles heel of the nuclear industry. This is a terrific interview, listen to it and you will learn much that you never knew before.

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August 11, 2008

Renewable energy, nuclear power, and the 2008 election

Harvey Wasserman is a respected author and political activist whose book Solartopia is a vision of what the world will look like when we switch to renewable energy sources. A pioneer since 1973 of the global grassroots movement against atomic reactors, Wasserman is now Senior Editor of the Free Press. In this interview, he discusses our current dire global situation, and also talks about his new book, How the GOP Stole America's 2004 Election and is Rigging 2008. Wasserman is one of the United States' most experienced anti-nuclear campaigners and one of the leading thinkers toward to a truly green energy future. This is a fascinating conversation so tune in!

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August 4, 2008

A Clean-Energy Future without Nukes, Oil or Coal?

Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D is President of The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. In this program, Dr. Makhijani discusses his new book, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free, A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy (2007), which demonstrates that the U.S. and the rest of the world could successfully meet all of its energy needs with renewable energy by 2050. This groundbreaking research should be the boilerplate for all plans to fight global warming. Dr. Makhijani wrote the first study on U.S. energy conservation potential (1971), edited the book Nuclear Wastelands and is the principal author of Mending the Ozone Hole (MIT Press). The Roadmap can be ordered in book form or downloaded free here. This show also includes a clip of a lecture by Dr Caldicott at a 2007 conference.

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July 28, 2008

What would nuclear winter mean today?

Professor Alan Robock of the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University is a meteorologist who has studied the effects of nuclear winter since the 1980s. Most recently, he has examined the climatic effects of regional nuclear conflicts and the effects of global warming. In this program, he talks about how a full-scale nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia, which each have 10,000 nuclear weapons, could trigger nuclear winter, while detonating even one-third of their collective arsenals would cause catastrophic climate change. A nuclear war between India and Pakistan would wreak major havoc with global temperatures and agriculture. The show ends with a brief excerpt of a lecture Dr Caldicott gave at an early childhood conference in 2007.

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July 21, 2008

Hazards of U.S. nuclear power plants, part 2

Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Oversight Project at Beyond Nuclear and former director of the Reactor Watchdog Project at Nuclear Information and Resource Service, illuminates the operation, disrepair and vulnerability of U.S. nuclear power plants. This episode also includes an excerpt from the 1983 Oscar-winning documentary, If You Love This Planet, which features Dr. Caldicott giving a lecture about the risks and consequences of nuclear war.

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July 14, 2008

Hazards of U.S. nuclear power plants, part 1

David Lochbaum, Director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, about the public health dangers of the 104 aging nuclear power plants in the United States. Hear about near-melt-downs, how terrorists could easily crash planes into the planes or sabotage them from the inside, and how the Nuclear Regulatory Commission fails to ensure community safety. Also includes a short excerpt of a lecture by Dr. Caldicott about the Nuclear Age from If You Love This Planet (1983 Academy Award-winning documentary) with narration from U.S. nuclear propaganda films.

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