If You Love This Planet, Dr. Helen Caldicott

Reports, Studies and Conferences

Consumption/Consumerism

The Consumption Explosion: The third UK Interdependence Report [contends that overconsumption is a larger environmental problem than overpopulation]

Corporations / Media

The Toxic 100: The Top Corporate Air Polluters in the U.S.

The Corporation (2003 documentary film exploring the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time)

Alex Carey: Corporations and Propaganda (radio documentary on the three-quarter-century propaganda effort by corporations to convince the American people to expand corporate rights, limit democracy and destroy unions. Focuses on the era from World War I through Reagan, but still relevant today)

Can You Hear Congo Now? Cell Phones, Conflict Minerals, and the Worst Sexual Violence in the World

The World According to Monsanto [complete English-audio version of 2008 French documentary]

The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities: An Updated Analysis

The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers (2009 The Nation cover story)

Amy Goodman’s 30-minute February 5, 2010 Democracy Now interview of authors Robert McChesney and John Nichols on their book “The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again”

Energy / Transportation

Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free, A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy

Wired for Progress: Building a National Clean-Energy Smart Grid

The Energy [R]evolution: A Sustainable USA Energy Outlook

Transition To Green: Environmental Transition Recommendations For The Obama Administration

Plugging Into the Sun [National Geographic November 2009 cover story]

Subprime Carbon: Rethinking the World’s Largest Derivatives Market

The Canadian Oil Sands: Energy Security vs. Climate Change

The Era of Xtreme Energy: Life After the Age of Oil

Growth in the Canadian Oil Sands: Finding a New Balance

Using Solar Roofs To Power Hybrids

Evaluating the Feasibility of a Large-Scale Wind, Water, and Sun Energy Infrastructure

Food / Hunger

Quantifying the Costs of Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Change

Agriculture and the Food System: Adaptation to Climate Change

The Environmental Food Crisis

Historical Warnings of Future Food Insecurity with Unprecedented Seasonal Heat

The State of Food Insecurity in the World: 2009

Is agriculture eroding civilization’s foundation?

Half of all [UK] fruit & vegetables contaminated with pesticides

Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Actions

Livestock and Climate Change: What If The Key Actors In Climate Change Are Cows, Pigs, And Chickens? [livestock may contribute 51% of greenhouse gas emissions]

Mitigating Climate Change Through Food and Land Use

Historical Warnings of Future Food Insecurity with Unprecedented Seasonal Heat

Cooking up a storm: Food, greenhouse gas emissions and our changing climate

Our health, our environment: The Ecological Footprint of what we eat

Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops

Global Warming

Climate Change and Your Health: Rising Temperatures, Worsening Ozone Pollution

Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change [report]

Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change [links to key points, video and radio interviews, commentary, etc.]

Assessing dangerous climate change through an update of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ‘‘reasons for concern’’

Climate Change Futures: Health, Ecological and Economic Dimensions (2005 report from Harvard Medical School, Swiss Re and the United Nations Development Program)

Will a warmer world make us sicker?

An Inconvenient Truth (film)

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change global warming reports

Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change [conclusions]

Nitrogen trifluoride in the global atmosphere

Historical Warnings of Future Food Insecurity with Unprecedented Seasonal Heat

Quantifying the Costs of Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Change

Agriculture and the Food System: Adaptation to Climate Change

National Parks in Peril: The Threats of Climate Disruption

Climate Change Connections: A Resource Kit on Climate, Population and Gender [2009 UN report finding that poor women 'bear climate burden’

Co-benefits of climate change mitigation policies: literature review and new results [global climate policy reducing emissions will reduce outdoor air pollution and save millions of lives]

A Climate Of Conflict: The Links Between Climate Change, Peace And War

Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States

Rates of change in natural and anthropogenic radiative forcing over the past 20,000 years [study showing global warming effects could last 1,000 years]

Rising CO2 could cause catastrophic sea level rise of up to 19 feet (six meters) if the world fails to get pollution under control (information on Nov. 2009 Antarctic study)

How will Earth’s surface temperature change in future decades?

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program’s 2009 Update on Selected Climate Issues of Concern: Observations, Short-Lived Climate Forcers, Arctic Carbon Cycle, and Predictive Capability [global warming now affecting entire arctic ecosystem]

Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate – North America, Hawaii, Caribbean and U.S. Pacific Islands

Restructuring Federal Climate Research to Meet the Challenges of Climate Change

Human Development Report 2007/2008: Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world

Cooking up a storm: Food, greenhouse gas emissions and our changing climate

Suffering the Science - Climate Change, People and Poverty

Even the Himalayas Have Stopped Smiling: Climate Change, Poverty and Adaptation in Nepal

The Climate Gap: Inequalities in How Climate Change Hurts Americans & How to Close the Gap

Air Pollutant Climate Forcings within the Big Climate Picture (talk given by Professor James Hansen at the Climate Change Congress, “Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions”, Copenhagen, Denmark, March 11, 2009)

Air Pollutant Climate Forcings within the Big Climate Picture (PowerPoint charts for Professor James Hansen’s talk at the Climate Change Congress March 11, 2009)

The Impacts of Sea-Level Rise on the California Coast

Managing the health effects of climate change

Geoengineering the climate: Science, governance and uncertainty

Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming

The future is here: climate change in the Pacific

Climatic Changes Lead to Declining Winter Chill for Fruit and Nut Trees in California during 1950–2099

James Hansen: Strategies to Address Global Warming & Is Sundance Kid a Criminal? [people, not politicians like Obama, are more aware of the urgency needed to address climate change]

Sulfuryl Fluoride and Climate Change: Dow Chemical’s sulfuryl fluoride is 4,780 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide over a 100-year time horizon. Letter to EPA from Center for Biological Diversity, Pesticide Action Network, and other groups requesting ban on sulfuryl fluoride

Permafrost Melting a Growing Climate Threat: Study

Soil organic carbon pools in the northern circumpolar permafrost region (permafrost-melting study - full study can be purchased)

Turning Up the Heat : Global Warming and the Degradation of Canada’s Boreal Forest

Warming increases the risk of civil war in Africa

Impacts of Climate Change on California’s Public Health, Infrastructure, and Natural Resources

Hotter and Drier: The West’s Changed Climate

Dirty Oil: How the tar sands are fueling the global climate crisis

Climate Change in the American Mind

More Extreme Heat Waves: Global Warming’s Wake Up Call

Climate Shame: Get Back To The Table

James Hansen: If It’s That Warm, How Come It’s so Damned Cold?

Nuclear Power Is Contraindicated as a Solution to Global Warming Because of Nuclear Mutagenesis [four-minute interview with Dr. Helen Caldicott]

Nuclear Power

Elevated airborne beta levels in Pacific/West Coast US
States and trends in hypothyroidism among newborns
after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown

The NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety in 2010: A Brighter Spotlight Needed

Health Effects of Chernobyl 25 years after the reactor catastrophe

Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment

The Chernobyl Catastrophe - Consequences on Human Health

Nuclear Power and Children’s Health: Highlights of the 2004 Symposium

Regulatory Roulette: The NRC’s Inconsistent Oversight of Radioactive Releases from Nuclear Power Plants

Nuclear Power: Still Not Viable Without Subsidies

The impacts of climate change on nuclear power station sites

Nuclear power and global warming

Aerial photo of San Onofre, California nuclear power plant (the meltdown of which could make San Diego and Los Angeles uninhabitable) – a sea-level rise of five feet from global warming would easily flood the plant

Nuclear Power Can’t Be a Solution to Global Warming Precisely because of Global Warming [in-depth article with links]

Nuclear Power: No Solution to Climate Change

Confronting a False Myth of Nuclear Power: Nuclear Power Expansion is Not a Remedy for Climate Change

The medical and economic costs of nuclear power by Helen Caldicott, M.D.

Chernobyl on the Hudson? The Health And Economic Impacts Of A Terrorist Attack At The Indian Point Nuclear Plant

Out of Control - On Purpose: DOE’s Dispersal of Radioactive Waste into Landfills and Consumer Products

Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools in the U.S.: Reducing the Deadly Risks of Storage

Nuclear Reactor Hazards: ongoing dangers of operating nuclear reactors

Business Risks and Costs of New Nuclear Power

The Top 10 Reasons the U.S. Doesn’t Need More Nuclear Power Plants

Comparison of Greenhouse-Gas Emissions and Abatement Cost of Nuclear and Alternative Energy Options from a Life-Cycle Perspective

Epidemiological Study of Childhood Cancer in the Vicinity of Nuclear Power Plants (the KiKK Study) [five-page summary in English of German study]

German KiKK Study: Higher Cancer Risk Next to Atomic Power Plants / Unofficial Belarussian Children Cancer Data [blog article about the study with graphs, and information about cancer in Belarus]

Voices From Three-Mile Island: An Oral History of America’s Near Catastrophic Nuclear Accident / 30th Anniversary Release: A Two-Hour Oral History Documentary (nationally broadcast on public radio)

Chernobyl accident – map of Europe showing radiation distribution

Tritium Hazard Report: Pollution and Radiation Risk from Canadian Nuclear Facilities

Nuclear Power Is Contraindicated as a Solution to Global Warming Because of Nuclear Mutagenesis [four-minute interview with Dr. Helen Caldicott]

Nuclear Weapons, Space Weapons and Depleted Uranium

Nuclear Famine: Two Billion People at Risk? Global Impacts of Limited Nuclear War on Agriculture, Food Supplies, and Human Nutrition

“Physicians to a Dying Planet”: Helen Caldicott, Randall Forsberg, and the Anti-Nuclear Weapons Movement of the Early 1980s

If You Love This Planet, Academy-Award-winning 1982 documentary film featuring Dr. Helen Caldicott on the medical effects of nuclear war (watch it here)

Smaller and Safer: A New Plan For Nuclear Postures (2010)

Resetting the Nuclear Disarmament Agenda (Mikhail Gorbachev’s Oct. 5, 2009 UN speech)

Nuclear winter revisited with a modern climate model and current nuclear arsenals: Still catastrophic consequences

Casualties and smoke emissions from regional and global nuclear conflict

Climate effects of a regional nuclear conflict

Nuclear winter article in Encyclopedia of Earth (2008)

Massive global ozone loss predicted following regional nuclear conflict

Whole World on Fire: Organizations, Knowledge, and Nuclear Weapons Devastation: How and why war planners underestimated the damage caused by nuclear weapons fire effects

Three Minutes to Midnight: NPRI Symposium on the Impending Threat of Nuclear War (2004 symposium)

Iran’s Nuclear and Missile Potential: A Joint Threat Assessment by U.S. and Russian Technical Experts

Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs (article about over 700 found photos showing destruction to buildings in Hiroshima from the atomic blast - links to slide show with 100 photos)

Dr. Helen Caldicott on our nuclear future (October 2008 speech on YouTube in 8 parts)

The Nuclear Renaissance: Nuclear weapons proliferation and terrorism

Transforming the U.S. Strategic Posture and Weapons Complex For Transition to a Nuclear Weapons-Free World

U.S. Weapons at War 2008: Beyond the Bush Legacy [U.S. is the world's largest arms supplier]

U.S. Defense Spending vs. Global Defense Spending

Trillions to Burn? A Quick Guide to the Surge in Pentagon Spending (2010)

The Next 50 Years of U.S. Space Leadership [2007 speech by Lockheed Martin CEO Robert J. Stevens in which he states that “There is no substitute or alternative to military dominance in space.”]

Air Force Space Command: Strategic Master Plan, FY06 and Beyond [This document declares that for the U.S., ".. maintaining space superiority is an essential prerequisite for success in modern warfare...Simply, we must be able to quickly subjugate any space capability any adversary can field while maintaining our own." ]

The Nuclear War on Iraq [film about depleted uranium]

Depleted Uranium: Scientific Basis for Assessing Risk

Use of Depleted Uranium Is a Form of Radiologic Warfare [four-minute interview with Dr. Helen Caldicott]

The Weapons That Kill Civilians — Deaths of Children and Noncombatants in Iraq, 2003–2008 [Note: The U.S. used heavy amounts of depleted uranium ("DU") weapons in 1991 and even more in 2003 when bombing Iraq, and DU should be considered a nuclear weapon]

Our world. Views from the field. The impact of conflicts and armed violence on civilians: overview

Our world. Views from the field: opinion survey – Part 1: the impact of armed conflict on eight nations

The Space Arms Race and the NASA Scam

Oceans

Polar Oceans in Peril…and a planet at risk

Global Threat, Global Challenge: Review and analysis of UNEP’s Global Initiative on Marine Litter 2009

Plastics in oceans decompose, release hazardous chemicals

Proceedings of the International Research Workshop on the Occurrence, Effects, and Fate of Microplastic Marine Debris

An Assessment of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) in Sediments and Bivalves of the U.S. Coastal Zone [flame retardants now found in all U.S. coastal waters and in the Great Lakes]

Hungry Oceans: What Happens When the Prey is Gone?

Census of Marine Life: Making Ocean Life Count

Ten-Year Probe Reveals Oceans in Peril [about the Census of Marine Life]

Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report

Arctic seas turn to acid, putting vital food chain at risk [world's oceans absorbing six million tons of carbon a day, which could lead to eco disaster]

Ocean acidification impairs olfactory discrimination and homing ability of a marine fish

Ozone Layer

NASA – New Simulation Shows Consequences of a World Without Earth’s Natural Sunscreen

What would have happened to the ozone layer if chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) had not been regulated? (Abstract)

What would have happened to the ozone layer if chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) had not been regulated?” (Discussion Paper)

Species Extinction

Species and Climate Change (2010 IUCN Red List of Endangered Species)

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (2008)

Electronic Smog ‘Is Disrupting Nature On A Massive Scale’ [study blames mobile phone masts and power lines for collapse of bee colonies and decline in sparrows]

Is Colony Collapse the price of e.m.f. [electromagnetic field] progress?

The State of the Birds: United States of America 2009

Reshuffling of Species With Climate Disruption: A No-Analog Future for California Birds

Birds and Climate Change: Ecological Disruption in Motion

Silent Spring Revisited: Pesticide Use and Endangered Species

Saving Species In The New Age Of Extinction [2009 Time magazine cover story]

Census of Marine Life: Making Ocean Life Count

Ten-Year Probe Reveals Oceans in Peril [about the Census of Marine Life]

Poisoning Our Imperiled Wildlife: San Francisco Bay Area Endangered Species at Risk from Pesticides

Palm oil paradox: a leading threat to orangutans and a key source of jobs in Sumatra

The Economics Of Ecosystems And Biodiversity [invest in nature now, save trillions later]

State of the Planet

Millennium Assessment Reports

2009 State of the Future report [which says that climate change will cause civilization to collapse; free summary and link to buy full report]

State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World

State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy

State of the World 2007: Our Urban Future

From Conflict to Peacebuilding – the Role of Natural Resources and the Environment

Toxic Pollution

Growing Up Toxic: Chemical Exposures and Increases in Developmental Disease

Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now (2008-2009 Annual Report by President’s Cancer Panel)

Fine-Particulate Air Pollution and Life Expectancy in the United States

The Smokestack Effect: Toxic Air and America’s Schools

Co-Benefits Of Climate Policy [about the need to build synergy between air pollution and climate policies for public health]

Birds, Bees and Mankind – Destroying Nature by “Electrosmog”

Pollution in 5 Extraordinary Women

Chemical Body Burden - Case Studies

Body Burden — The Pollution in Newborns

The Pollution Within (National Geographic report on toxins absorbed by humans)

Endocrine disruptors and reproductive health: The case of bisphenol-A

Use of Polycarbonate Bottles and Urinary Bisphenol A Concentrations

Potential for Plastics to Transport Hydrophobic Contaminants

Polymers Are Forever: Plastics that last thousands of years are already infecting the foodchain in the oceans

Silent Spring Revisited: Pesticide Use and Endangered Species

Clearing the Air – Hidden Hazards of Air Fresheners

Fine-Particulate Air Pollution and Life Expectancy in the United States

No More Toxic Tub: Getting Contaminants Out of Children’s Bath & Personal Care Products

Shining a Light on Sunscreens

Poisoning Our Imperiled Wildlife: San Francisco Bay Area Endangered Species at Risk from Pesticides

Occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in fish: Results of a national pilot study in the U.S.

Atrazine: Poisoning the Well - How the EPA is Ignoring Atrazine Contamination in the Central United States

In a landfill, how long does trash really last? [photo slide show]

The Health Effects of Electromagnetic Fields: Commonwealth Club Program on Cell Phones, Wireless Technologies & Electromagnetic Fields With Leading Experts (video of November 2010 conference)

Mobile Phones and Brain Tumors - A Public Health Concern

Long-term use of cellular phones and brain tumours: increased risk associated with use for >10 years

Mobile Phone Radiation Induces Reactive Oxygen Species Production and DNA Damage in Human Spermatozoa In Vitro

Tumors and Cell Phone Use: What the Science Says

Pittsburgh Cancer Center Warns of Risk From Cell Phone Use

BioInitiative Report: A Rationale for a Biologically-based Public Exposure Standard for Electromagnetic Fields (ELF and RF)

Electronic Smog ‘Is Disrupting Nature On A Massive Scale’

Perfume - An Investigation of Chemicals in 36 Eaux de Toilette and Eaux de Parfum

Toxic Chemicals In Scented Laundry Detergent And Fabric Softener And Health Hazards

Fragranced consumer products and undisclosed ingredients

Poison on Pets I: Health Hazards from Flea and Tick Products

Poison on Pets II: Toxic Chemicals in Flea and Tick Collars

Half of all [UK] fruit & vegetables contaminated with pesticides

Fluorescent Lighting and Light Pollution

The Health Effects of Fluorescent Lighting

Energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs make trigger breast cancer

Does the Modern Urbanized Sleeping Habitat Pose a Breast Cancer Risk [from fluorescent lighting]?

Compact Fluorescent Lights Can Emit Ultraviolet Radiation At Levels Higher Than Guideline Levels

Sunlight, [Fluorescent] Lighting and Your Health

Malignant Melanoma and Exposure to Fluorescent Lighting at Work

Full Spectrum Classroom Light and [A Significant Reduction in] Sickness in Pupils

Fluorescent lighting enhances chemically induced papilloma formation and increases susceptibility to tumor challenge in mice

Melatonin-Depleted Blood from Premenopausal Women Exposed to [Fluorescent] Light at Night Stimulates growth of Human Breast Cancer Xenografts in Nude Rats

The Association of Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma and Fluorescent Light Exposure

Full Spectrum Light: Energy and Health Builder

Fluorescent light activates the immunomodulator cis-urocanic acid in vitro: implications for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Release of Mercury from Broken Fluorescent Bulbs

Fluorescent Lighting Can Trigger ADD/HD, Dyslexia, and Poor Achievement

The Fluorescent Lighting Crisis: Part I: Background, Overview and Action

Fluorescent light allergy – online public forum

Fluorescent light health effects – readers commenting on Business Week article report widespread health problems from fluorescents

Petition to protect migraine sufferers/visually sensitive people from fluorescent lighting and maintain availability of incandescent bulbs

Light Pollution (National Geographic cover story, Our Vanishing Night)

Over-illumination (Wikipedia page)

Trees

State of the World’s Forests 2009

Slaughtering the Amazon

How to Save the Amazon Rainforest

Is oil palm the next emerging threat to the Amazon?

Forests for the Future: Indigenous Forest Management in a Changing World

Fever in the Forests: Global climate change is making many trees sick – and in the process releasing more carbon into the atmosphere

Forests for Climate: Developing a Hybrid Approach for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD)

Tropical Deforestation Emission Reduction Mechanism (TDERM): A Discussion Paper

Adaptation Of Forests And People To Climate Change – A Global Assessment Report

Palm oil paradox: a leading threat to orangutans and a key source of jobs in Sumatra

Eating Up The Amazon

Amazon’s Vicious Cycles: Drought and Fire

Bitumen and Biocarbon [when the Boreal forest is disturbed and destroyed for Canadian tar sands development, significant amounts of greenhouse gases are emitted]

The Carbon the World Forgot [boreal forests contain more carbon than tropical forest per acre]

Cut & Run: Kimberly-Clark’s legacy of environmental devastation and social conflict in the Kenogami Forest

Consuming the Boreal Forest: the chain of destruction from logging companies to consumers

Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming

Turning Up the Heat : Global Warming and the Degradation of Canada’s Boreal Forest

Paper Cuts [1999 report about global paper use]

Plant communities changing across the globe from land use and global climate change: an interview with scientist Sasha Wright

Water

Our Water Commons, Towards a New Freshwater Narrative

Water Privatization Threatens Workers, Consumers and Local Economies

Fifth World Water Forum (March 16-22, 2009) – reports from each day’s sessions in PDF or HTML

Climate Change and Water

World Water Development Report: Water in a Changing World

Bottled Water and Barrels of Oil [fact sheet]

Tritium on Tap [amount of radioactive pollution in Canadian drinking water from nuclear power plants has doubled]

Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards

The Professionals Statement Calling for An End to Water Fluoridation [signed by over 2,000 professionals including 267 medical doctors and 295 nurses]

Dental caries: a disorder of high fluoride and low dietary calcium interactions

A Bibliography of Scientific Literature on Fluoride

Are Proponents of Water Fluoridation Suppressing Scientific Evidence and
Debate?

New Evidence on Fluoridation

Changes in Blood Lead Levels Associated with Use of Chloramines in Water Treatment Systems

Lung hyperpermeability and asthma prevalence in schoolchildren: unexpected associations with the attendance at indoor chlorinated swimming pools

The Health Effects of Chloramines in Public Water Supplies: A Literature Review

Type of Disinfectant in Drinking Water and Patterns of Mortality in Massachusetts

Courting Disaster: How the Supreme Court Has Broken the Clean Water Act and Why Congress Must Fix It

Atrazine: Poisoning the Well - How the EPA is Ignoring Atrazine Contamination in the Central United States

Toxic Waters – A New York Times series about the worsening pollution in American waters and regulators’ response

Ocean Acidification: The Facts. A special introductory guide for policy advisers and decision makers