Tri-Valley CAREs
Communities Against a Radioactive Environment
The front page of the New York Times recently encapsulated the social, economic, moral and ecological crises of our age with side by side stories about global climate change and U.S. plans to spend $1 trillion on new nuclear weapons and bomb plants, including Livermore Lab.
U.S. Ramping Up Major Renewal in Nuclear Arms details a "nationwide wave of atomic revitalization" that includes "renovated plants that Mr. Obama has approved," which could, in the future, "let the arsenal expand rapidly." The article goes on to discuss new warheads and carriers (subs, missiles and planes) and the studies that show a trillion dollar price tag over the next 30 years.
Further, the NYT article goes into key details about the policies - and sheer politics - that undergird this insane new 21st century arms buildup. Tri-Valley CAREs is explicitly noted in the article's cited link about the "coalition of peace groups" that "sued to halt work on a replacement bomb plant in Kansas City."
The following day, the New York Times editorial board published its assessment of President Obama's role in the buildup. Titled, Backsliding on Nuclear Promises, the editorial notes that the proposed nuclear spending is "unwise and beyond what the nation can afford." It cites to several non-governmental organizations' analyses to say that the modernization plans are excessive. And, the editorial ends with what it rightly calls Obama's "foolish tradeoff - pouring money into modernization while reducing funds that help improve security at nuclear sites..."
There is much more to be said, of course: The immorality of nuclear weapons, their illegality under the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the horrific toll on human health and the environment spawned by their production, and the unimaginable consequences of their use are largely absent from the article and editorial.
Still, we think the New York Times deserves huge kudos for the quality of the information it did provide and, perhaps equally importantly, for putting nuclear weapons back on the front page.
Read on by clicking into the links, below, and join Tri-Valley CAREs in creating needed policy change. Public education and action are essential!
Click here to read the intitial NYT article, "U.S. Ramping Up Major Renewal in Nuclear Arms."
Click here to read the Editorial, "Backsliding on Nuclear Promises."