Science for Peace

Meet the Peace Walkers
YOU ARE inViTED | 2-hr Pre-Launch Hybrid Event

- Join the growing movement for peace & disarmament
- Learn about the organizations involved
- Grow your Peace Network
- Share the growing call to action
- Weave the connections between peace, climate change, and decolonization.

In Person Event Details: Halifax Central Library | BMO Room 6299 South St, Halifax, B3H 4R2

For optional donations, kindly eTransfer funds to [email protected]

On climate change, it's easy to say what we MUST do to lower emissions; it's much harder to suggest HOW we get it done. I make a suggestion concerning how we can reduce global emissions in a brief "story" in The Conversation entitled "Canada must continue cutting emissions regardless of the actions of other polluters. ” (FB does not permit me to post this article.)

Nuclear Wastes - Out of Sight, Out of Mind (video, 29m)
https://youtu.be/s6xbvOqkpEk
A zoom presentation (webinar) by Gordon Edwards

prepared for Seniors for Climate Action Now! (SCAN!)


August 6 2024.

Dr. Gordon Edwards discusses the radioactive waste materials that are created inside all nuclear reactors in a ZOOM presentation to Seniors for Climate Action Now! (SCAN!). From the production of plutonium for use in nuclear weapons, to the fiercely radioactive fission products that can single-handedly melt the core of any power reactor, to the multi-millennial toxic radioactive legacy of the nuclear age, and industry plans to abandon these radio toxic wastes while persisting in creating more and more, Dr. Edwards touches briefly on all major aspects of the problem.

Nuclear Wastes - Out of Sight, Out of Mind (29m, 2024) Dr. Gordon Edwards discusses the radioactive waste materials that are created inside all nuclear reactors in a ZOOM presentation to Seniors for Climate Actio...

Science for Peace is excited to participate in an initiative called “ Walking Together for Peace”. This event is co-sponsored by Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW), Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Pugwash Canada, and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (Canada - IPPNWC). The walk will start at Pugwash, Nova Scotia on September 8th, and will be covering 200 km over a two week period, arriving in Halifax on the International Day of Peace, September 21st. We are thrilled to have walkers from BC, Ontario and Nova Scotia, peace activists from India and Japan, and will welcome additional walkers from local communities en route. We are walking in the Gandhian tradition of ‘padyatra’, a powerful witness to truth and a call to justice.
We’re starting in Pugwash to honour the place where scientists who had helped to develop the nuclear bomb,worked together to de-escalate the nuclear arms race. They created the framework, now under threat, that has restrained the use of nuclear weapons for over sixty years.
We need to mobilize and refocus on the task of abolishing nuclear weapons. We will set off from Pugwash High School which is the first Canadian school to declare itself a nuclear weapons-free zone. We invite your support for Walking Together for Peace. It is a $20,000 project. We have raised $17,000.Your contribution toward the remaining $3000 will go toward sponsorships for youth
participants, honoraria for Indigenous involvement, and for food and transportation for the walkers.

We are all at risk from the threat of nuclear weapons and we all need to take action. You can donate by going to scienceforpeace.org https://48nig.r.sp1-brevo.net/mk/cl/f/sh/1f8JIKXwHGYox7fs4sKAm1m58U/vijZ29U7EDb- and clicking the Donate or Pay Fees link. https://48nig.r.sp1-brevo.net/mk/cl/f/sh/1f8JIKXwHGZDuKL522q22OoUEc/TY330Mxm7kmy In the private message that is attached to the donation page, please indicate that the donation is for “Walking together for Peace”.


Jorge Filmus
President
Science for Peace

You are invited to join Voice of Women for Peace, Science for Peace and Jai Jagat in a grassroots initiative-Walking Together for Peace.
Walking Together for Peace will take place from September 8th to 21st, 2024. It is a 200 kilometer walk that will begin at Pugwash on the North Shore and conclude with people walking, driving and biking into Halifax. A core group of youth, women, peace, ecology activists along with several Gandhian “Peace Walkers” joining us from India will be walking the full length. We invite the public to join us as well for a few stops or a day to help support the cause. The participation will be local, national and international. It will focus on banning nuclear weapons and the positive impact that a complete ban will have on the environment and the climate. There will also be workshops on disarmament education and events in Halifax on the International Day of Peace on September 21. More information: https://vowpeace.org/walkingtogether4peace/

The foundation of Science for Peace, which I have been a member of for about 4 decades, was the idea the scientists, especially technical experts, need to give voice to their knowledge of the existential threats of nuclear weapons. As a scientist, although not a weapons let alone nuclear weapons scientist, I have continued to support the principle that scientists have a social responsibility to speak up and out on the critical issues of the day.

In this context, using our scientific tools and expertise, we have obligations to communicate the threats, and where available solutions to the threats that face humanity.

In many respects, I have worried that this ethos of public service by scientists, emphasizing scientists of integrity, has diminished and been silenced in the last decade or so.

Fortunately, there are still scientists, like Professor Theodore Postol, who are willing to speak up and out.

Today, we are again faced with nuclear weapon existential threats, similar and in many ways worse then the 1960s, e..g., Cuban Missile Crisis, or the 1980s, with "Star Wars", i.e., deployment of weapons in space. With the advancements of weapons deployment, there has not been similar advancements in weapons threats detection.

Professor Theodore Postol paints a picture of a USA that threatens deployment of more nuclear weapons, with little understanding by either the politicians and civil servants or the military of the security risks that come with escalatory actions.

This video includes some very dire warnings. Will the public respond and take action?

Toward a Second Cuban Missile Crisis? - Theodore Postol, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen Toward a Second Cuban Missile Crisis? - Theodore Postol, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen***GREAT NEW MERCH AT THE DURAN SHOP***The Regatta Collection | Sh...

This article on the Green New Deal as our best bet has aroused a lot of debate on The Conversation. '

A ‘green new deal’ is Canada’s best hope of achieving a just carbon-zero transition A green new deal is practical, politically possible, and the best chance we have to achieve a just carbon-zero transition in Canada.

If you have not had the opportunity to to listen to Prof. Michael Brenner, here is your opportunity to to listen to an USA public intellectual who of course is relegated to the "USA samizdat” … The Soviets would understand.

Of course we all need to understand the world as it is, if we are going to construct solutions.

“The US Is SCARED As Hell: Hegemony Or Bust | Prof. Michael Brenner” https://youtu.be/td9nAYnxjtA?si=SxqehUB15pTGEKqk

Text from the video introduction by “Neutrality Matters” by Pascal Lottaz

“Well, this is it. The end of the road is in plain sight for everyone to see. But the driver is still hitting that gas pedal as if there was no tomorrow. The game of chicken is on, but this is one that the West cannot win.

The rise of China is the greatest existential threat to the USA in its history not because of any security, economic, or epistemic dangers, but purely because it invalidates the self-conception of the Washington elites that equate themselves with "the world." The sheer fact that there is a counter concept on the global stage that is successfully rivalling the US in all spheres–from the economy, to tech, to culture, and foreign influence—invalidates its hegemony and thereby the core of the modern self-image of the USA.

Listen to the explanations of Professor Michael Brenner, who explores both, US relations with China and Russia to make sense of the suicidal policies that the US is taking toward its rivals.

Turns out that hegemony—once the mindset has firmly taken root—undermines the very foundations upon which it is built. Or, put differently, success is blinding the US into defeat."

Listen to the explanations of Professor Michael Brenner, who explores both, US relations with China and Russia to make sense of the suicidal policies that the US is taking toward its rivals. "

This discussion was held on-line, and in person at the University of Toronto, 2024-07-04.

"While our attention and hearts are focused on Gaza, civil society cannot abandon the wider fight for Palestinian rights and a better future for everyone between the River and the Sea.

Jeff Halper is a Jewish Israeli-American peace activist and author, co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and a founding member of the Palestinian-led One Democratic State Campaign."

TOWARDS A DEMOCRATIC STATE FOR ALL BETWEEN THE RIVER AND THE SEA While our attention and hearts are focused on Gaza, civil society cannot abandon the wider fight for Palestinian rights and a better future for everyone betw...

Bringing critical thinkers together to discuss geopolitics is often very difficult, more so if limited to social media. Nonetheless, social media tools can themselves be powerful tools. Here is an example, of a wide collection of social media presenters discussing the critical issues of our time ... building peace, in a not so peaceful world.

“We are forming a global alliance against globalism, and neutrality studies is part of that. Don't get confused, let's just live with the contradiction.

This morning we held a first panel of independent social media contributors, discussing the new multipolarity we are now in, why we think that the collective west is being collectively stupid about it, and what we—and you—can do to oppose the lunacy.

The Basics:
A) Multipolarity is not only an emerging reality, it is also a preferable foundation for global order.
B) Neutrality is an important tool within the overall mix of how nations view themselves and position themselves in the context of integrated and indivisible security.
C) NATO is a dangerous organisation and its expansion globally is undesirable and contrary to achieving a sustainable peace.

Work in progress. More here: Multipolarpeace.com

Dr. Warwick Powell

Dr. Pascal Lottaz: Neutrality Studies

Jerry Grey: Jerry's Take on China
Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/

Arnaud Bertrand:
Twitter, https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqblkxUzJFdzZfTDFnb1lDYkNOdEJLRDdIZERlUXxBQ3Jtc0ttcTB5RGJsUHhvY1AwNlg4Nmp0bVk4SEZUWW5GLUpUMUVzYWk1Z0ItMUlpZmdPMWFyUkQ5cU5tQ3NGWTVyanhCWWxsQU9GWm9YdGhzTFo4NHZuWENaUllmSEI3MUFZUDRXYjBkNkpMR1IwTjNoSHAyOA&q=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Frnaudbertrand%3Fs%3D21%26t%3DHa0PfGlCnOB-Qrg9CjHrcg&v=kg8_YXt580c

Dr. Jeff Rich: Burning Archive
Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzmI2CEnbKq0yswTpqdQfyg
Substack, https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbmhXYzlSS3FMeE5waE5Hc1J5LWNFSTFiNHFRd3xBQ3Jtc0ttSUZqNkFyeWdnaVVRZndSLTkyQXhncEtWSlhwWUppMGoxdmtjbGRWc2ZtRVdSX21KcllRT09QRVhuOEVDSnV3OU5xWmZ4ZzBIYUFDeTlZSTA3bl93N0VIbGtMTmdpVWZuQVpWS1lWQVJRaVZsdXZOSQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fjeffrich.substack.com%2F&v=kg8_YXt580c

Dr. Digby Wren
Substack, https://substack.com/

Dr. David Oualaalou: Geopolitical Trends
Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbHpwY2M4ay1VTXhNV1pqMWRXdjNMeHZkLTBvUXxBQ3Jtc0tsUnVmNS1KQUhmOC1GZks1bFJnVUU3OXp3MVM2TTNxU1VLR1JPWnYtd2JleTVLbG5hdGZRYS03akFaQzJLUVZSbnRLS19wcWQ3dDQyVjRjMHA0Y092V0xjNzNRWUJvTGl1V2E2aVV3YTZkSktTS2JmTQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack.com%2F%40digbywren&v=kg8_YXt580c

S.L. Kanthan
Substack, https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbnpoTVVGQ25vSnhDcnRjbTQycHROUnV3R1VXZ3xBQ3Jtc0tscm9UUmlid0YxWDFFN0V4ZGttM3VabFZVWDcwV3ZYVVlfajRMdmdHcml1VTRxY3BBZXhWRkhQQ0hDNzh1YXItZHhzOUlJdUkwU3lKMDF0M3pNWFFWNjRfVl9VWVFSbXYtLTgzV2JNckxZYVNjN1k1OA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fslkanthan.substack.com%2F&v=kg8_YXt580c
Twitter, https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbVhHLUdfSlZJNGhlY3FUMnRPMkNDS1RDV0k1d3xBQ3Jtc0ttYm4wREMxYkZjeWJtSG8zOTdFcE1GdmdOMmlGbHdKMVpTX2RlRWZOTTR0ODdsQ2tNTExMTGpTQkJkWTF4SjQ1eElpNFJGeEhYaTBLT1JQd1Y4b044cVI2OUhib1M0dHZoTTByZEtCQVQ5Q0x3SGpibw&q=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fkanthan2030%3Fs%3D21%26t%3DiiQMumWJaSchlcOqeum8xA&v=kg8_YXt580c

Einar Tangen
Linkedin, https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbm9sdE50MjZ3ODBmYndSckdSTWpFajYwN2UxZ3xBQ3Jtc0ttWnJ4RjNScGRxUUlfU09xQm9OWmJQRUpoOE9PQ1p5dHJYRWt2QXlDNk5yR3JEWFRQUlBXbnRNWGRyU3V5b1d3bXIyZm1KX3dWb0pzUEt0akg1Q0RNNXVTeGJPTGlydENxR2pBZ1o3dWhmQWRGdkxOQQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fehtangen%2F%3Flocale%3Dzh_CN&v=kg8_YXt580c

Dr. John Pang
Twitter, https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbXB6VlgwUXVjUS1pbm9OT0kyM0gxRmpRM3Y2QXxBQ3Jtc0trOHVtZGxzaEdpb0sxWVdka0ZqZ3RxSVV1Y1U4SEMwWmxTZzJlMnFFTlRfbE1wcTR2SmVSamlQZEF5Rk5GeFJITEt2UjJyd1JlV3dpdUdNZjdNR2NWRVpSRUpLM2c3U2tpdVM5VkljVUJNTXo4eVRMNA&q=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fjynpang%3Fs%3D21%26t%3DOeME2_0KAfLV6NADW8DPGg&v=kg8_YXt580c

“

Multipolar Peace NOW! We Are Forming A Social Media Alliance. We are forming a global alliance against globalism, and neutrality studies is part of that. Don't get confused, let's just life with the contradiction. This ...

Do thorium reactors prevent nuclear weapons proliferatiion risks?
Gordon Edwards : Jul 01 02:03AM -0400

Do thorium reactors prevent nuclear weapons proliferatiion risks?

Many people have been assured, incorrectly, that the use of thorium as a “nuclear fuel” eliminates the danger of nuclear weapons proliferation. That is simply untrue.

The fact is, thorium is NOT a nuclear fuel. However, a thorium-232 atom can be transmuted into a uranium-233 atom by capturing a stray neutron, and uranium-233 (not generally found in nature) is an excellent nuclear fuel and can also be used to make excellent nuclear weapons. So a “thorium reactor” is really a uranium-233 reactor.

Natural thorium — thorium-232 -- is not fissile (i.e. it is not a chain-reacting material). So thorium requires a concentrated fissile material to be added to it, in order to get a chain reaction going and produce the neutrons that are needed to transmute thorium-232 atoms into chain-reacting uranium-233 atoms.

That concentrated fissile material additive does not have to be enriched uranium, it can equally well be plutonium. It has to be either one or the other, there is no other choice. So, in any event, to get a “thorium reactor” going, you need to use either uranium (enriched to a rather high degree) or plutonium (extracted from used nuclear fuel) as an additive. In either case, you will need to use proliferation-sensitive technologies (uranium enrichment or plutonium extraction) before even embarking upon a thorium reactor program.

Thorium use is therefore not a proliferation-resistant plan of action, not even to begin with.

It gets worse, because subsequently, if the “thorium-impregnated-with-fissile material” is irradiated in a reactor, the thorium atoms will FIRST be transmuted into protactinium atoms (protactinium-233) which will then spontaneously “decay” into uranium-233 atoms. In addition, further neutron captures inside the reactor will also produce a small amount of uranium-232, an undesired pollutant that is a strong gamma emitter.

Thorium enthusiasts often say that the powerful gamma rays from U-232 will make the U-233 unusable for nuclear weapons, which is somewhat of an exaggeration to begin with.

However, if the protactinium-233 is chemically separated out from the irradiated “thorium fuel" outside the reactor, those protactinium-233 atoms will spontaneously decay into pure uranium-233 atoms without any admixture of uranium-232 (because there are no neutrons outside the reactor to create uranium-232 as a result of additional neutron captures),

Since pure U-233 can be produced spontaneously outside the reactor, as outlined above by separating out protactinium-233 first, this procedure can completely avoid the problem of U-232 contaminating the U-233 — which, admittedly, would make nuclear weapons construction more difficult (although not impossible).

So the complicating factor of U-232 can be circumvented entirely by a would-be proliferator. There is no doubt that U-233 is an extremely powerful nuclear explosive material and, uncontaminated, can be used to make arsenals of nuclear weapons with relative ease.

Thus thorium reactors do not “eliminate” or even significantly reduce the problem of nuclear weapons proliferation.

Cheers,

Gordon Edwards.


P.S. Here’s a Bulletin of Atomic Scientists argument followed by an analysis of thorium as reactor fuel and as a nuclear explosive written by myself some years ago.

https://thebulletin.org/2014/05/thorium-the-wonder-fuel-that-wasnt/ -heading

https://thebulletin.org/2014/05/thorium-the-wonder-fuel-that-wasnt/?utm_source=SocialShare&utm_medium=CopyLink&utm_campaign=CopyLink&utm_term

Thorium: the wonder fuel that wasn't The Energy Department appears to have lost track of 96 kilograms of uranium 233, a fissile material made from thorium that can be fashioned into a bomb, and wants to put nearly a ton of left-over fissile materials in a government landfill, in apparent violation of international standards.

Many of ua, for some time during the Ukraine War and now War on Palestine, have wondered why there hasn't been more fear about the constant military escalation by the West in the these wars, including setting up situations that would lead to a full blown Nuclear War, based on some childish belief that escalation to a “Limited Nuclear War” can be contained, and a “Limited Nuclear War” is an acceptable risk and use of military power.

Jeffery Sachs attempts to answer some of these questions. In short, the Western control of narratives have suppressed the fear of Nuclear War in the context of Western exceptionalism, perhaps as I would phrase it in a childish belief Captain America can somehow survive the nuclear weapons exchanges and save USA world hegemony.

Crossing red lines w/ Jeffrey Sachs (Live) Crossing red lines w/ Jeffrey Sachs (Live) Jeffrey Sachs: The Center for Sustainable Development (CSD), https://csd.columbia.ed...

Strategic Issues in in Climate Action:
III. System Change, Not Climate Change?

It matters what one means by system change...

System Change, Not Climate Change? - Richard Sandbrook - PROGRESSIVE FUTURES BLOG We have grounds for hope that there is an ecologically sustainable form of capitalism. The prospects for “system change” - for overthrowing capitalism - in the next couple of decades are negligible.

We Must Face Down the Expanding Anti-Reality Industry Exposing the antiscience playbook reveals the antiregulatory motives of its deep-pocketed bankrollers

Strategic Issues in Climate Action:
I. Why “Green Growth” Is Not the Answer to the Climate Crisis

The bold claim of this perspective is that countries can combine perpetual growth and prosperity with safeguarding ecological conditions for later generations. Green growth focuses on making growth resource-efficient and cleaner, not reducing it. But three problems make green growth a bad gamble.

Why "Green Growth" Is Not the Answer to the Climate Crisis - Richard Sandbrook - PROGRESSIVE FUTURES BLOG Green growth, the dominant approach to climate mitigation, holds that growth can continue while emissions rapidly decline. It is a dubious proposition for three reasons.

This "letter to the students" at Indiana University clearly identifies the concern that many of us share while in support of the student protests over Israel's massive assault in Gaza in response to the original Hamas attack of Oct 7th. Slogans and words do matter in holding together a coalition. It is not the occasional anti-semitic slur that is most damaging (though they are unacceptable),, but the suggestion, implicit or explicit, that the state of Israel must be eliminated to achieve justice. Hamas is far from blameless. The only basis for peace is that Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs learn to live together in the small space of Palestine. That requires negotiations in which each partner recognizes the legitimacy of the other.

A Makeshift Alliance - Dissent Magazine A professor's critical support for the student protests.

A supporter of the student occupation at Columbia University, Finkelstein talks to the students about the importance of a movement knowing clearly what it hopes to achieve, and selecting its slogans on that basis. If you want to expand your support, adopt slogans that are unambiguous, that cannot be manipulated by opponents to mean something sinister. Astute advice.

Norman Finkelstein: Build a Majority for Palestine Holocaust scholar and pro-Palestine activist Norman Finkelstein expresses his support for the student protests, insisting on the importance of free speech and uniting the majority of Americans around solidarity with Gaza.

Yet again, the argument for why we need to achieve nuclear disarmament. If we don't, we may be faced with the scenario below. But how to get negotiations underway?

The End of the World as We Know It Far from enhancing American national security, or the security of the world, nuclear weapons will lead us to the edge of destruction.

STUDENT REVOLT
The student rebellion over Palestine is certainly about the brutality of the Israeli response to the original massacre in October of Israelis by Hamas, and the US support for Israel. But it seems to be about more than that. Their generation is fed up. The "system" is unjust and cannot provide security either on an individual level (employment, debts) or on a collective level, especially in relation to climate change. The revolt may herald another search for a "new" left that can create a more humane world.