If You Love This Planet, Dr. Helen Caldicott

Archive for May, 2010

Greenpeace USA’s Phil Radford on the state of environmental activism

Monday, May 31st, 2010

 

Phil Radford

Phil Radford

Dr. Caldicott chats with Phil Radford, the Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, about environmental activism and many other issues. For six years, Radford was Greenpeace USA’s Grassroots Director. During that time, he created a $9 million Grassroots Program which greatly expanded Greenpeace USA’s on-line, grass-roots and student organizing and training, as well as street and door-to-door canvassing. Recent corporate targets of Greenpeace campaigns include Kimberly-Clark, a major tree cutter, and ExxonMobil, a major polluter and global-warming denier. Greenpeace is largely sustained by hundreds of thousands of small monthly donations. Radford earned a Bachelor degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1998, and holds a certificate in Non-profit Management from Georgetown University.

Jacqueline Cabasso with the latest on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation efforts

Monday, May 24th, 2010

 

Jacqueline Cabasso

Jacqueline Cabasso
(Credit: Steven Starr)

Dr. Caldicott speaks with Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation (WSLF), a non-profit organization that provides information about nuclear weapons and analyses of nuclear policies. Cabasso is a leading voice for nuclear weapons abolition, speaking at events across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. She is also the North American coordinator of Mayors for Peace, and serves on the global council of Abolition 2000 and the steering committee of United for Peace & Justice. She has written and co-authored numerous articles for publications including the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the journal Social Justice. In this conversation, Cabasso reports on the May 3-28 proceedings of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York, and the work government leaders and activists are doing to eliminate nuclear weapons in the U.S. and throughout the globe. As this interview was recorded in mid-May before the Conference was completed, Cabasso could not summarize the final results of the conference. For a review of Conference outcomes, read the June 2 article, The 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, the June 3 commentary in English from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, EDITORIAL: NPT review conference and the May 29 article U.N. Nuke Meet Ends with Good Intentions and Empty Promises. Also read the June 9 article What’s Next for the Nuclear Disarmament Movement?

Dr. Janette Sherman on the true magnitude of the Chernobyl meltdown and the staggering health effects of nuclear radiation

Monday, May 17th, 2010

 

Janette Sherman, M.D.

Dr. Janette Sherman

Dr Caldicott interviews Janette D. Sherman, M.D., a specialist in internal medicine and toxicology. Dr. Sherman has published more than 70 articles in the scientific literature and also writes for the popular press to provide information to the concerned public. Dr. Sherman is the author of Life’s Delicate Balance: Causes and Prevention of Breast Cancer, and Chemical Exposure and Disease. She has recently completed the translation and editing of the book Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and Nature, published by the New York Academy of Sciences in December 2009, which indicates that nearly one million people were killed by the Chernobyl disaster. Dr. Sherman has been an advisor to the National Cancer Institute on breast cancer and to the EPA on pesticides. She is a resource person and speaker for universities and health advocacy groups concerning cancer, birth defects, pesticides, toxic dumpsites, and nuclear radiation. As background for this interview, read the article Chernobyl Radiation Killed Nearly One Million People: New Book. And read the review by Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D. of the Chernobyl book.

Greg Mello on America’s resurgent nuclear weapons program and unwavering nuclear posture

Monday, May 10th, 2010

 

Greg Mello

Greg Mello

This week, Dr. Caldicott talks with Greg Mello, a founder and Executive Director of the Los Alamos Study Group, which provides leadership on nuclear disarmament and related issues in New Mexico. Since 1992, Mello has led the Study Group in its work on U.S. nuclear weapons policy, as well as Congressional edu-cation, community organizing, and litigation. Mello’s research and analysis have been published in a variety of places, including the Washington Post and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Denis Hayes on environmental activism since the first Earth Day; more from Dr. Caldicott’s March speech in Vermont

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

 

Denis Hayes

Denis Hayes

Dr. Caldicott talks with Denis Hayes, president and CEO of the international group Earth Day Network and president and CEO of The Bullitt Foundation. Hayes is the author of numerous books and articles, but he’s probably still best known for having been National Coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970 when he was 25. During the Carter Administration, Hayes directed the federal National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He’s been a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a senior fellow at the Worldwatch Institute, an adjunct professor of engineering at Stanford University, and a Silicon Valley lawyer. Internationally, he is recognized for expanding Earth Day to more than 180 nations. In this conversation with
Dr. Caldicott, he reflects on the changes in the environmental movement in the last 40 years and what can be done now to demand real action on issues like global warming. In the last third of this program, we hear more of Dr. Caldicott’s March 29 speech in Vermont about the health hazards of nuclear radiation.