by Alicia Godsberg

Nuclear weapons are the only weapons of mass destruction not banned by international convention. Yet the use of only one nuclear weapon would have devastating consequences for the climate, environment, health, food production, and economy of our planet...

Read the full article here.

We remember Mandela speaking truth to power: a great leader in human rights, democracy and equity, who ended apartheid and won the Nobel Peace Prize. But his courage also brought a challenge to the nuclear weapons states' reliance on "these terrible and terrifying weapons of mass destruction - Why do they need them, anyway?" (Sept. 21, 1998 address to UN General Assembly). He saw through the hypocrisy and secrecy behind the superpowers' huge investments in atomic bombs - "the threat of brute force to assert the primacy of some states over others" - and under his leadership, South Africa renounced nuclear weapons entirely.

We in the US are indebted to Mandela for his strong, principled stance, which gives us work to do even now.

First, we need to halt the ongoing waste of our tax dollars on nuclear weapons as it impoverishes people everywhere.

Second, we must stop plans for "modernization" and "life extension" of US nuclear weapons, which would escalate their lethality into new military capabilities, and scuttle disarmament negotiations between NATO and Russia.

Third, we need to ratify existing treaties to reduce strategic nuclear arms and ban nuclear testing comprehensively.

ALERT #1: This month(Dec. 2013) Congress considers S.1197, the Defense Authorization Bill, which (in Section E)seeks to upgrade the B-61 bomb, each of which would cost $25 billion -- the most expensive warheads in the US arsenal. We need to urge Rep. Dan Maffei, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, and Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to oppose the wasteful "life extension" and "modernization" of these weapons. Better to extend the lives of people !

ALERT #2: As Congress debates raising the "debt ceiling" this month, we have the opportunity to cut even more Pentagon waste than the "sequester" did. Recall that the sequester only reduced the increase slightly: the Defense Bill is still $626 billion. We need to remind Congress that the Cold War is over, current wars are winding down and we don't want to start new ones. In fact, investing in "defense transition assistance" for defense contractors to convert their manufacturing to civilian purposes would both stimulate the economy by creating more jobs (e.g. Lockheed could diversify and maintain a local presence) and reduce our reliance on Pentagon procurement (which wastes money). Please write your representatives and urge them to cut more from the Pentagon, not less (seehttp://pullthepork.org/).

We will safeguard our children's future education, health, nutrition and well being by working for peace the way Mandela did. Thanks for your support for Peace Action CNY!

From Global Research
October 20, 2012

Numerous American nuclear reactors are built within flood zones. The Huntsville Times wrote in an editorial last year:

"A tornado or a ravaging flood could just as easily be like the tsunami that unleashed the final blow [at Fukushima as an earthquake]."

An engineer with the NRC says that a reactor meltdown is an "absolute certainty" if a dam upstream of a nuclear plant fails . and that such a scenario is hundreds of times more likely than the tsunami that hit Fukushima.

Full article

Click here to read this powerful proclamation titled "Proclamation Calling on Congress to Fund Urgently Needed Services in Albany County and Throughout the United States by Reducing Military Spending."

Thanks to Upper Hudson Peace Action for their work to get this passed!

To the Editor:

Sept. 23 marked 20 years since the last nuclear bomb test in the United States. For those of us working for nuclear disarmament, this is a moment to celebrate and to rededicate ourselves to eradicating weapons of mass destruction. The United States was the first country to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996. However, our government has failed to ratify the CTBT and now is one of eight governments whose non-ratification prevents the treaty from entering into force.

Please take a moment to write to President Obama and ask him to follow through on his promise to ratify the CTBT.

Amelia Ramsey-Lefevre
Staff organizer for Peace Action of Central New York
Syracuse

Printed in the Post-Standard on October 14, 2012.