By Michael Marriotte
Last week we launched a new campaign to put an end to the myth of “clean nuclear power,” and we are off to a great start. We are rolling out the #NuclearIsDirty campaign with a series of online and social media events over 12 weeks. During that time, we will take you through the entire nuclear fuel chain, from uranium mining all the way to the impossible problems of radioactive waste and contamination.
We are not only going to put on a series of powerful and exciting events, we are combining it with actions you can take and new online (and offline) resources to supplement the campaign.
Our goals are simple: on the one hand to equip you with information and an opportunity to hear from communities and activists on the frontlines. And on the other hand, to spread the word and change the public’s consciousness about nuclear power, so that everyone knows nuclear power is dirty energy, and has no place in our energy future.
But we can’t accomplish either of those goals without you: both your activism and your support. We need you to participate in these events, and share your questions and insights.
And just as much as your participation and support, we need you to share the #NuclearIsDirty campaign with your friends and social networks. Every new person we can reach … every new person who attends an event … every additional action taken … takes us one step closer to stopping nuclear power.
We also need you to help us take on the industry’s PR machine–and to do that, we have to take advantage of a generous matching donation to build the #NuclearIsDirty campaign. That means we need you to donate, as well as activate. Every dollar you give generates another dollar donation to NIRS. And so does every dollar donated by your friends. All donations to NIRS are, of course, tax-deductible. Please donate now here.
For decades, the philosophy of movement-building has been, “Each one, reach one.” And for on-the-ground, grassroots organizing, there is still no more powerful tool. But the revolution of social media means each of us can reach dozens of people, if not more, each and every day.
With that, we can start our own anti-nuclear chain reaction, and make #NuclearIsDirty go viral!
#NuclearIsDirty … From the Start! In the first “episode” of the rollout series we are focusing on the roots of nuclear power, the problems that are the very foundation of the nuclear industry:
- Uranium mining and the mountains of waste generated just to produce nuclear fuel.
- Environmental justice, and the targeting of vulnerable communities throughout the fuel chain.
- The dangers of radiation exposure, and its disparate impacts on women and girls.
We kicked things off last week with a presentation on the 1979 Church Rock uranium mill disaster and its impacts on Navajo communities in New Mexico and Arizona. Church Rock released more radiation than the Three Mile Island meltdown, and has never been cleaned up. If you missed it, you can listen to the briefing here.
This week, we will host a webinar with activists from the Clean Up the Mines campaign. Church Rock was just the tip of a massive, dirty iceberg: there are over 15,000 abandoned uranium mines throughout the country, leaking radioactive and toxic waste. And just like Church Rock, Native American communities are disproportionately affected. Communities from Arizona to South Dakota are uniting to take on this problem–and we hope you can join them this Friday, March 25, for a powerful webinar.
Click here to get all the details. And share it with your friends. We’ll be posting about the webinar and the #NuclearIsDirty campaign on Facebook and Twitter all week long–jump in and help us spread the word!Φ
Michael Mariotte is president of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). Learn more about Mr. Marriotte and other NIRS staff here.