HIROSHIMA DAY PRESS RELEASE 6AUG 2013
PEOPLE FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
HUMAN SURVIVAL PROJECT
68 YEARS AFTER HIROSHIMA, NUCLEAR WEAPONS STILL THE NUMBER ONE THREAT TO HUMAN SURVIVAL

Hiroshima Day Forum 6pm 6Aug New South Wales Teachers Federation Mary St Surry Hills

‘The Elephant in the Palais Des Nations: Nuclear Weapons and Human Survival’, 4pm 9Aug(Nagasaki Day), Centre For Peace and Conflict Studies, Sydney Uni, Mackie Building

68 years after the bomb was first dropped on Hiroshima on 6Aug 1945 and on Nagasaki on 9Aug, nuclear weapons remain the single most dangerous short – term threat to what we call ‘civilisation’, and in theory at least, to humans as a species.

The just under 2000 nuclear weapons that the US and Russia maintain on high alert, launch-able in ‘a few dozens of seconds’ according to Russian Colonel Valery Yarynich, would create over 1-2 billion immediate casualties and bring about climatic conditions colder than the last ice – age according to climate researchers.

India and Pakistan face each other with over 100 weapons each, and the Pakistani arsenal is the worlds most rapidly growing nuclear arsenal. An India-Pakistan nuclear exchange would create up to a billion deaths from global famine in its aftermath, as well as hundreds of millions of immediate casualties.

Global progress toward zero nuclear weapons, a legal requirement of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, the worlds most widely signed treaty, is stalled with Russia unwilling to go very far unless the US abandons its missile defence program, and rabid pro-bomb sentiments on the right of the US political spectrum.

At the same time, global opinion remains all but unanimously in favour of going to zero, with language at the UN increasingly revolving around ‘catastrophic humanitarian consequences’ of nuclear weapons use. The UN has created an ‘open-ended working group’ to get around logjams elsewhere and map a pathway to global nuclear zero.

Hiroshima Day in Sydney has already seen a rally in Hyde Park. Two further events are coming. They are:

Hiroshima Day Forum, NSW Teachers Federation, 23-33 Mary St Surry Hills, 6pm, 6Aug (Hiroshima Day)
Professor Tilman Ruff, International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
Denis Doherty, Australian Anti-Bases Committee
John Hallam, People for Nuclear Disarmament
Radhika Raju (Chair) CFMEU

9Aug, 2013 (Nagasaki Day)
‘The Elephant in the Palais Des Nations – Nuclear Weapons, the UN, and Human Survival’,
Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Mackie Building, Sydney University (Opposite side of Parramatta Rd to Footbridge Theatre).
Professor Peter King, CPACS/Human Survival Project
John Hallam, People for Nuclear Disarmament/Human Survival Project

John and Peter have over the years lobbied the United Nations on accidental nuclear war, leading to a widely supported UN resolution on operational readiness of nuclear weapon systems.

Inquiries and comment on nuclear disarmament issues:
John Hallam m0416-500-793h9810-2598
Prof. Peter King: 042-264-7025
Or Prof. Tilman Ruff (ICAN), m +61 438 099 231

Inquiries on 6thAug Hiroshima Day Forum: Denis Doherty 9698-5617 0418-290-663

 

 

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