May, 15 2013, 04:28pm EDT
Pandora's Propaganda: New Documentary Omits Sound Science and Expert Research and Should be Viewed with the Facts at Hand
Nuclear energy is a complex subject that can be difficult to communicate to the general public. However, this challenge does not excuse the deliberate omission of known scientific facts, or the re-framing of information to sell a pro-nuclear point of view that would be undermined by the inclusion of such key evidence. Unfortunately, this appears to be the case in Robert Stone's new film, Pandora's Promise, which releases theatrically next month.
TAKOMA PARK, MD
Nuclear energy is a complex subject that can be difficult to communicate to the general public. However, this challenge does not excuse the deliberate omission of known scientific facts, or the re-framing of information to sell a pro-nuclear point of view that would be undermined by the inclusion of such key evidence. Unfortunately, this appears to be the case in Robert Stone's new film, Pandora's Promise, which releases theatrically next month.
Therefore, after extensive research, Beyond Nuclear has published a new paper -- Pandora's False Promises: busting the pro-nuclear propaganda.We also provide a two-page synopsis.Pandora's False Promises delivers point by point facts and numerous scientific references that correct the misconceptions put forward by this film and by pro-nuclear advocates generally.
We would take no issue with an individual such as Stone arriving legitimately at a point of view with which we disagree. However, Stone apparently made little or no effort to seek information from (and certainly not to include in his film) the leading scientific and medical experts and researchers on many of the issues he covers.
By deferring only to those who support his pro-nuclear thesis, and in many cases whose credentials on the topic are questionable, Stone has made his case while steering well clear of many inconvenient truths. We therefore urge any viewing and review of this film to be done with a great deal of skepticism and with the facts at hand.
"When Pandora's Promise was first publicized, it claimed to feature 'former leaders of the anti-nuclear movement,' which got our attention," said Linda Gunter of Beyond Nuclear who has authored several documents examining the claims made in the film and in its publicity. "But when we looked at who was actually featured, we found that virtually all roads led to The Breakthrough Institute whose personnel appear prominently in the film and none of whom ever 'led' the anti-nuclear movement."
More significantly, in researching many of the assertions made in the film, viewed by several Beyond Nuclear associates at public screenings prior to the film's theatrical release next month, it became clear that facts were not a priority.
"The film apparently repeats some of the more popular myths about nuclear power that sound good only if you look no deeper," said Gunter. "The protagonists evidently chose to over-look sound science in favor of slick sound bites. It seemed time to set the record straight."
The Beyond Nuclear reportseeks to address many of the common misconceptions about the alleged "positives" of nuclear power by analyzing and citing the enormous wealth of scientific, medical and environmental evidence and research that has been conducted in this area. The study is intended to serve as a guide well beyond the shelf-life of Pandora's Promise, given the on-going efforts by the nuclear industry and its backers to resuscitate an industry whose economics and safety record threaten to assign it to extinction.
"Of course we hear the usual accusations about our having our own anti-nuclear agenda," Gunter added. "Yes, we are anti-nuclear. But we did not arrive at this position by talking only to people with scant scientific credentials who espouse an anti-nuclear point of view; or to scientists with a vested interest in promoting nuclear technology. We arrived at it because when you review the overwhelming scientific, medical and environmental evidence, it is painfully obvious that nuclear power, from the beginning of the uranium fuel chain to the end, harms human and animal health and the environment."
Pandora's False Promiseslooks at a full range of areas including: the discredited World Health Organization cancer fatality predictions after Chernobyl, which suppressed the agency's own findings, and its oversight by the nuclear-promoting International Atomic Energy Agency; the multitude of studies -- as well as the example of Germany -- that show the capability of renewable energy and energy efficiency to displace by 100% not only nuclear but also fossil fuels; the serious safety flaws and proliferation dangers, combined with high costs, that make so-called "new generation" or "fast" reactors not only extremely dangerous but commercially unviable; the impracticality of bringing on nuclear power, which takes years -- and billions of dollars -- to build, in time to address the climate crisis; and that France, despite its 80% reliance on nuclear-generated electricity, still stores more than 90% of its radioactive waste with no capacity to "recycle" it.
For more information, see the Beyond Nuclear web page, Pandora's False Promises.
Download the two-page summary and full report or request a hard copy from info@beyondnuclear.org or by calling 301-270.2209.
Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.
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More Than 4 Dozen Unions Demand 'End of Repression' of Columbia Protests
"The right to protest is necessary for every struggle, and the direct attack on this right is an attack on labor as well," said the labor groups. "An injury to one is an injury to all."
Apr 23, 2024
More than four dozen labor unions across numerous industries on Tuesday signed a letter expressing solidarity with students who have been suspended and arrested in recent days for protesting at Columbia University, including members of the on-campus labor group Student Workers of Columbia.
Unionized student workers in SWC-UAW 2710 were among the hundreds of picketers who have been protecting the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which students set up at Columbia on April 17 to pressure administrators to divest from weapons manufacturers, tech companies, and other entities that benefit from Israel's apartheid policies in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Ivy League institution, protesters say, will remain complicit in Israel's bombardment and blockade on Gaza, the killing of at least 34,183 Palestinians in the enclave since October, and the intentional starvation of dozens of people, until it entirely divests from Israel.
"As workers, we stand in solidarity with our union siblings in SWC-UAW 2710 who were arrested and face suspension," said the unions, including the Mother Jones Staff Union, Irvine Faculty Association, and Cleveland Jobs With Justice. "We call for their and their classmates' immediate reinstatement and for Columbia to drop all charges against them, both legal and academic. We deplore [Columbia president Minouche Shafik]'s actions and call for Columbia to immediately end the repression of protest."
The protests at Columbia—where more than 100 students were suspended, arrested for trespassing, and in some cases, evicted from their housing—have galvanized college students and faculty members at a growing number of universities in recent days.
Campus groups at the University of Minnesota and the University of Pittsburgh both announced early Tuesday that they were setting up their own encampments in solidarity with Columbia students and victims of the Israel Defense Forces' relentless attacks on Gaza, which the International Court of Justice said in January was "plausibly" a genocide.
After police arrested students at the University of Minnesota Tuesday afternoon and broke up the encampment, thousands of members of the school community rallied to demand that the university divest from all arms manufacturers.
Encampments were also erected Monday at University of California, Berkeley and University of Michigan.
Jessica Christian, a photojournalist for the San Francisco Chronicle, reported that students were stopping to "ask what supplies the campers need as they walk by to class" at Berkeley, where roughly 50 tents were set up on Tuesday.
On Monday night, dozens of students at Yale University and New York University were arrested for protesting, setting up encampments, and "disorderly conduct."
The arrests at Columbia last week have not stopped students and educators from speaking out against the administration. A new encampment was set up last Friday and hundreds of faculty members staged a walkout Monday in support of the students.
In their letter, the unions on Tuesday warned that "the repression and criminalization of activists, students, professors, and academic workers across the country are violations of our elementary rights to free speech and protest."
"The right to protest is necessary for every struggle, and the direct attack on this right is an attack on labor as well," said the unions, "An injury to one is an injury to all—if the Columbia students can be repressed for protesting, Columbia workers and all workers could be too. Workers stand in full solidarity with this student movement."
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Apr 23, 2024
As the fourth round of talks for a global plastics treaty kicked off in the Canadian capital on Tuesday, campaigners with the corporate accountability group Ekō staged a die-in at Ottawa's Shaw Centre to demand an ambitious plan to reduce production.
"Plastic pollution has reached the snows of Antarctica, the deepest oceans, even the clouds in the sky—and still fossil fuel corporations are trying to ramp up production," explained Ekō campaign director Vicky Wyatt. "This week governments have a choice: Stand up to this slash-and-burn approach by agreeing to radically reduce plastic output, or let the world be held to ransom by a dying industry. It's very clear to people across the planet which way they need to go."
Demonstrators—some wearing fish masks to highlight how plastic pollution impacts marine biodiversity—gathered in front of a 28-foot banner that used plastic trash bags to spell out: "Plastic is poisoning us. Cut production now."
(Photo: Ben Powless/Survival Media Agency)
Participants in the die-in—which followed the weekend's "March to End the Plastic Era" through the Canadian city—held smaller signs with similar messages, demanding that governments and industry "stop fueling climate chaos."
As Common Dreamsreported last week, new research from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California shows that planet-heating pollution from the plastics industry is equivalent to that of about 600 coal-fired power plants, and 75% of the greenhouse gas emissions from plastic production are released before the plastic compounds are even created.
The protesters also highlighted that more than 180,000 Ekō members have signed a petition urging action on plastic pollution. The petition specifically calls for banning all plastic waste exports from the European Union and fully implementing the Basel Convention within the bloc, while the summit has a global focus and the plan is to have a treaty by the end of this year.
After countries agreed to draft a treaty two years ago, the latest talks in Kenya last year were flooded by fossil fuel and chemical lobbyists and ended with little progress, increasing attention on the Canadian meeting that began Tuesday and is scheduled to run through Monday.
"It's a crucial moment of this process," Andrés Gómez Carrión, chair of the negotiations and an Ecuadorian diplomat in the United Kingdom, toldReuters on Monday. "One of the biggest challenges is to define where the plastics lifecycle starts and define what sustainable production and consumption is."
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Greenpeace last month installed a 15-foot monument outside the U.S. Capitol to send President Joe Biden a message.
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Sam Cossar-Gilbert of Friends of the Earth International emphasized the need to resist corporate pressure in a statement Tuesday.
"A people-powered movement and some governments are proposing ambitious steps to address the plastic problem, like regulating the harmful waste trade, single-use bans, and reducing global plastic production," said Cossar-Gilbert. "But multinational corporations will also be lobbying with their false solutions, distractions, and delays. Only by stamping out corporate capture can we deliver a new global treaty to end plastic pollution."
Mageswari Sangaralingam from the green group's Malaysian arm, Sahabat Alam Malaysia, stressed the need for strong waste management policies, given that Global South countries have become dumping grounds for richer nations' discarded plastic.
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One of South Korea's two highest courts on Tuesday began hearing Asia's first-ever youth-led climate lawsuit, which accuses the country's government of failing to protect citizens from the effects of the worsening, human-caused planetary emergency.
Nineteen members of the advocacy group Youth4ClimateAction filed a constitutional complaint in March 2020 accusing the South Korean government of violating their rights to life, the "pursuit of happiness," a "healthy and pleasant environment," and to "resist against human extinction."
The lawsuit also notes "the inequality between the adult generation who can enjoy the relatively pleasant environment and the youth generation who must face a potential disaster from climate change," as well as the government's obligation to prevent and protect citizens from environmental disasters.
"South Korea's current climate plans are not sufficient to keep the temperature increase within 1.5°C, thus violating the state's obligation to protect fundamental rights," the plaintiffs said in a statement.
South Korea's Constitutional Court began hearing a case that accuses the government of having failed to protect 200 people, including dozens of young environmental activists and children, by not tackling climate change https://t.co/XRIGE23KGM pic.twitter.com/snvqBaGGe9
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 23, 2024
Signatories to the 2015 Paris agreement committed to "holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above preindustrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C."
According to the United Nations Environment Program's (UNEP) most recent Emissions Gap Report, the world must slash greenhouse gas emissions by 28% before 2030 to limit warming to 2°C above preindustrial levels and 42% to halt warming at 1.5°C. UNEP said that based on current policies and practices, the world is on track for 2.9°C of warming by the end of the century.
A summary of the lawsuit notes that South Korea is the fifth-largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations, and that the government is constitutionally obligated to protect Koreans from the climate emergency.
Instead, the plaintiffs argue, the Korean Parliament "gave the government total discretion to set the GHG reduction target without providing any specific guidelines." Furthermore, they contend that the government's downgraded reduction targets fall "far short of what is necessary to satisfy the temperature rise threshold acknowledged by the global community."
Lee Donghyun, the mother of one of the plaintiffs, toldReuters: "Carbon emission reduction keeps getting pushed back as if it is homework that can be done later. But that burden will be what our children have to bear eventually."
The South Korean case comes on the heels of a landmark ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which found that Switzerland's government violated senior citizens' human rights by refusing to heed scientists' warnings to swiftly phase out fossil fuel production.
The ECHR ruled on the same day that climate cases brought by a former French mayor and a group of Portuguese youth were inadmissible.
Courts in Australia, Brazil, and Peru also have human rights-based climate cases on their dockets.
In the United States, a state judge in Montana ruled last year in favor of 16 young residents who argued that fossil fuel extraction violated their constitutional right to "a clean and healthful environment."
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