|
|
*
"...as
long as we have nuclear weapons on this earth, one
could claim that no real life is actually thriving
on the earth. We do not have life actualizing its
fullest potential as long as there are nuclear weapons."
-- Mayor
Tadatoshi Akiba
We
cannot and must not allow ourselves to have the message
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki fade completely from our
minds, and we cannot allow our vision or ideals to
fade, either. For if we do, we have but one course
left for us. And that flash of light will not only
rob us of our vision, but it will rob us of our lives,
our progeny, and our very existence.
-- Mayor
Tadatoshi Akiba
|
Our
aim is to have a universal nuclear weapons convention signed
by the year 2010 and ultimately abolish all nuclear weapons
by the year 2020.
-- Mayor
Tadatoshi Akiba
Environmental
scientists also show us clearly that from the environmental
and ecological points of view that nuclear war is not preventable.
The only way to get rid of this danger is to abolish all
nuclear weapons
-- Mayor
Tadatoshi Akiba
What
the Hiroshima survivors are telling us is that no one else
should ever go through the experience they suffered. An
atomic bombing creates a living hell on Earth where the
living envy the dead.”
-- Mayor
Tadatoshi Akiba
In
some ways more painful is the fact that their experience
appears to be fading from the collective memory of humankind.
Having never experienced an atomic bombing, the vast majority
around the world can only vaguely imagine such horror, and
these days, John Hersey’s Hiroshima and Jonathan Schell’s
The Fate of the Earth are all but forgotten. As predicted
by the saying, ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned
to repeat it,’ the probability that nuclear weapons will
be used and the danger of nuclear war are increasing.”
-- Mayor
Tadatoshi Akiba
“Passing
on to younger generations the memories and the will of those
who suffered the bombing is the most important step for
humankind to survive in the 21st century,”
This
Aug. 6 ... is a time of inheritance, of awakening, and of
commitment, in which we inherit the commitment of the bomb
victims to the abolition of nuclear weapons and realization
of genuine world peace,”
-- Mayor
Tadatoshi Akiba
|
After
over 30 years of building nuclear power plants, there
is still no safe way of disposing the contaminated
nuclear materials that are produced. These contaminated
wastes endanger our environment and the lives of countless
generations to come.
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
Hiroshima
Day is an opportunity to raise awareness about the
threat of nuclear weapons and the dangers of nuclear
energy. It's the perfect time to urge your Mayor to
declare your city a Nuclear Free Zone.
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
|
 |
|
*
We
must not only control the weapons that can kill us,
we must bridge the great disparities of wealth and
opportunity among the peoples of the world, the vast
majority of whom live in poverty without hope, opportunity
or choices in life. These conditions are a breeding
ground for division that can cause a desperate people
to resort to nuclear weapons as a last resort. Our
only hope lies in the power of our love, generosity,
tolerance and understanding and our commitment to
making the world a better place for all...
-- Muhammad
Ali
|
 |
If the
entire history of mankind were condensed into a single year,
our knowledge of how to destroy life on earth with weapons
of mass destruction has been acquired in the last thirty
seconds. Never again will we lack the knowledge to eliminate
the world in a single act of madness. Therefore, we are
faced with a dilemma unique in our history. We must not
only control the weapons that can kill us, we must bridge
the great disparities of wealth and opportunity among the
peoples of the world, the vast majority of whom live in
poverty without hope, opportunity or choices in life. These
conditions are a breeding ground for division that can cause
a desperate people to resort to nuclear weapons as a last
resort. Our only hope lies in the power of our love, generosity,
tolerance and understanding and our commitment to making
the world a better place for all of Allah's children.
-- Muhammad
Ali
 |
*
“Above all else, we need a reaffirmation of political
commitment at the highest levels to reducing the dangers
that arise both from existing nuclear weapons and from
further proliferation.”
-- Kofi
Annan |
*
"The existence of nuclear weapons presents a clear
and present danger to life on Earth. Nuclear arms cannot
bolster the security of any nation because they represent
a threat to the security of the human race. These incredibly
destructive weapons are an affront to our common humanity,
and the tens of billions of dollars that are dedicated
to their development and maintenance should be used
instead to alleviate human need and suffering."
-- Oscar
Arias Sanchez |
 |
 |
*
"Nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth;
to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use
them, is a curse against God, the human family, and
the earth itself."
-- Philip
Berrigan
|
|
"If
we fight a war and win it with H-bombs, what history
will remember is not the ideals we were fighting for
but the methods we used to accomplish them. These
methods will be compared to the warfare of Genghis
Khan who ruthlessly killed every last inhabitant of
Persia."
-- Hans
Bethe
*
"I call on all scientists in all countries to
cease and desist from work creating, developing, improving
and manufacturing further nuclear weapons - and, for
that matter, other weapons of potential mass destruction
such as chemical and biological weapons."
-- Hans
Bethe
|
|
Today
we are rightly in an era of disarmament and dismantlement
of nuclear weapons. But in some countries nuclear weapons
development still continues. Whether and when the various
Nations of the World can agree to stop this is uncertain.
But individual scientists can still influence this process
by withholding their skills.
-- Hans
Bethe
 |
At
that time a senator who was on the Joint Committee
of Atomic Energy said rather quietly, 'You know, we're
having a little problem with waste these days.' I
didn't know what he meant then, but I know now.
-- David
R. Brower
*
"Is
the minor convenience of allowing the present generation
the luxury of doubling its energy consumption every
10 years worth the major hazard of exposing the next
20,000 generations to this lethal waste?"
-- David
R. Brower
|
*
"We're
worrying for the country and we're worrying for our
kids. We say NO radioactive waste dump in our ngura
in our country. Don't waste our country. Don't waste
our future."
-- Eileen
Kampakuta Brown & The Kungka Tju |
 |
We know
the poison from the radioactive dump will go down under
the ground and leak into the water. We drink from this water.
The animals drink from this water. We're worried that the
animals will become poisoned, and we'll become poisoned
in our turn.
-- Eileen
Kampakuta Brown & The Kungka Tju
I've
also gotten to play in front of a million people in Central
Park when there was a grass roots movement calling for nuclear
disarmament - it was about 1982 - they called it Peace Sunday.
-- Jackson Browne
*
"It
is my profound conviction that nuclear weapons did not,
and will not, of themselves prevent major war. To the
contrary, I am persuaded that the presence of these
hideous devices unnecessarily prolonged and intensified
the Cold War. In today's security environment, threats
of their employment have been fully exposed as neither
credible nor of any military utility."
-- General
Lee Butler, head of US Strategic Nuclear Forces
1991-1994. |
 |
It is
a measure of arrogance to assert that a nuclear weapons-free
world is impossible when 95% of the nations of the world
are already nuclear-free. I think that the vast majority
of people on the face of this earth will endorse the proposition
that nuclear weapons have no place among us. There is no
security in nuclear weapons. It is a fool’s game.”
-- General
Lee Butler, head of US Strategic Nuclear Forces 1991-1994
“I am
the only person who ever looked at all twelve thousand five
hundred of our targets. And when I got through I was horrified.
Deterrence was a formula for disaster. We escaped disaster
by the grace of God. If you ask one person who has lived
in this arena his whole career, I have come to one conclusion.
This has to end. This must stop. This must be our highest
priority.”
-- General
Lee Butler, head of US Strategic Nuclear Forces 1991-1994
Nuclear
weapons play on our deepest fears and pander to our darkest
instincts. They corrode our sense of humanity, numb our
capacity for moral outrage, and make thinkable the unimaginable.
They prey on democracies and totalitarian societies alike,
shrinking the norms of civilized behavior and dimming the
prospects for escaping the savagery so powerfully imprinted
on our genetic code.
-- General
Lee Butler, head of US Strategic Nuclear Forces 1991-1994
People
who say to me that the elimination of nuclear weapons is
utopian have somehow managed to completely ignore the fact
that the end of the Cold War was a far more utopian prospect
only ten years ago than eliminating nuclear weapons is now.
-- General
Lee Butler, head of US Strategic Nuclear Forces 1991-1994
A world
free of the threat of nuclear weapons is necessarily a world
devoid of nuclear weapons…. Nuclear weapons pose an intolerable
threat to humanity and our habitat….
-- General
Lee Butler
There
are still thousands of warheads loaded on operational systems
and standing on high states of alert on virtually hair-trigger
posture. And you have to ask yourself: Why is that? Who
is the enemy? What is the threat?
-- General
Lee Butler
 |
*
"As
a doctor, as well as a mother and a world citizen, I
wish to practice the ultimate form of preventive medicine
by ridding the earth of these technologies that propagate
disease, suffering, and death."
-- Helen
Caldicott |
“American
leaders have declared that nuclear weapons will remain the
cornerstone of US national security indefinitely. In truth,
as the world’s only remaining superpower, nuclear weapons
are the sole military source of our national insecurity.
We, and the whole world, would be much safer if nuclear
weapons were abolished.”
-- Rear Admiral Eugene J Carroll, US Navy
 |
For
this generation, ours, life is nuclear survival, liberty
is human rights, the pursuit of happiness is a planet
whose resources are devoted to the physical and spiritual
nourishment of its inhabitants.
~ Jimmy
Carter
|
|
*
"The
risk of an all-out nuclear holocaust destroying all
life on the planet has diminished, but the danger
of actual nuclear weapons use has increased."
-- David
Cortright
If
the United States wants to prevent other countries
from acquiring the bomb, it must be prepared to reduce
and eventually end its own reliance on nuclear weapons.
-- David
Cortright
|
 |
Reducing
the nuclear danger will require a universal, consistent
opposition to all forms of weapons development
-- David
Cortright
|
|
*
"A
common denominator in every single nuclear accident
-- a nuclear plant or on a nuclear submarine -- is
that before the specialists even know what has happened,
they rush to the media saying, 'There's no danger
to the public.' They do this before they themselves
know what has happened because they are terrified
that the public might react violently, either by panic
or by revolt."
~ Jacques
Cousteau
|
|
*
"There’s
a very simple reason for focusing on the nuclear issue.
Many, many issues are of supreme importance in one
way or another, but if we blow ourselves up with nuclear
weapons, no other issue is really going to matter.
Quite possibly there would be no other human beings
left to be concerned about anything else."
-- Alan
Cranston
Unprecedented
warnings by officials most closely linked with nuclear
arms negotiations and defense strategy indicate that
we are running out of time. If we fail to act soon,
the scars of a major nuclear disaster will mark our
immediate and distant future.
-- Alan
Cranston
|
 |
The
probability of a fatal nuclear detonation is greater now
than at any time during the Cold War. As the Russian military
deteriorates, and as rogue governments and terrorists seek
to acquire nuclear capabilities, the threat continues to
grow.
-- Alan
Cranston
As they were during the Cold War, urban population centers
remain the most likely targets of a nuclear attack. Now,
however, an attack may come without warning from an unknown
enemy, to achieve unclear motives.
-- Alan
Cranston
The
explosion of a terrorist’s single nuclear device in a major
metropolitan center would trigger an unparalleled humanitarian
and environmental disaster. An accidental military launch
of multiple warheads could result in a worldwide nuclear
holocaust. Medical researchers and military analysts forebode
grim consequences.
-- Alan
Cranston
|
|
*
"The
risks of transporting deadly nuclear waste, the environmental
justice impacts and the long-term health effects of
both these projects are untenable...We cannot afford
to be silent on these important issues."
~ James
Cromwell
|
|
*
I
know that nuclear is better than fossil fuels when
it comes to carbon dioxide, but nuclear energy is
by no means clean. We don't know what to do with the
waste we already have and it seems like a bad idea
to me to make more when we have so many cleaner options
such as wind and solar.
-- Sheryl
Crow
|
 |
 |
*
"The
nuclear arms race is like two people sitting in a pool
of gasoline spending all their time making matches."
-- John
Denver |
|
*
"We
must unite to make nuclear weapons a horror of the
past."
-- Michael
Douglas
I
have met with political leaders, legislators, and
diplomats, seeking the next steps to press in reducing
and eliminating the nuclear threat in this century.
I have participated in public coalitions developing
programmes for action to combat the global rash of
small arms. All are trying and making a difference.
-- Michael
Douglas
|
 |
 |
*
"Human
beings should only use technology which if the worst
case happens, it leads to an acceptable damage. Definitely
nuclear energy is not in that category. I want an industrial
world where people are allowed to make errors. Because
human creativity has to do with being allowed to make
errors. We want an error-friendly environment."
-- Hans-Peter
Dürr |
|
*
I do not know with what weapons World War 3 will be
fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks
and stones.
-- Albert
Einstein
*
Since I do not forsee that atomic energy is to be
a great boon for a long time, I have to say that for
the present it is a menace. Perhaps it is well that
it should be. It may intimidate the human race into
bringing order into its international affairs, which,
without the presence of fear, it would not do.
-- Albert
Einstein
|
 |
Through
the release of atomic energy, our generation has brought
into the world the most revolutionary force since prehistoric
man's discovery of fire. This basic force of the universe
cannot be fitted into the outmoded concept of narrow nationalisms.
For there is no secret and there is no defense; there is
no possibility of control except through the aroused understanding
and insistence of the peoples of the world. We scientists
recognise our inescapable responsibility to carry to our
fellow citizens an understanding of atomic energy and its
implication for society. In this lies our only security
and our only hope - we believe that an informed citizenry
will act for life and not for death.
-- Albert
Einstein
 |
“[Not
achieving a nuclear test ban] would have to be classed
as the greatest disappointment of any administration
of any decade, of any time and of any party.”
-- President
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
*
The
United States strongly seeks a lasting agreement for
the discontinuance of nuclear weapons tests. We believe
that this would be an important step toward reduction
of international tensions and would open the way to
further agreement on substantial measures of disarmament.
-- President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
|
|
*
It
is time for the rest of the world to join ... in demanding
that ALL the nuclear weapons states -including Israel,
India and Pakistan, but above all the US and Russia
- negotiate concrete steps on a definite time - table
toward the global, inspected abolition of nuclear
weapons.
-- Daniel
Ellsberg
”It
is urgent to prevent new U.S. aggression. The time
is now for the world to say ‘no’ to U.S. threats of
air attack against Iran, and to the very notion of
a nuclear first-use ‘option’ by America or any other
nation.”
--
Daniel
Ellsberg
|
 |
My activities,
for which I gratefully accept this Award, are today what
they have been for over thirty-five years and will be for
the rest of my life: to counter governmental secrecy about
the nuclear arms race that threatens the survival of life
on earth; and to help build a world movement that will prevent
a first use since Nagasaki of nuclear explosions, prevent
or end interventions that could lead to such an event, and
bring about a world free of nuclear weapons.
-- Daniel
Ellsberg
|
|
When
faced with world problems – like hunger, overpopulation,
nuclear weapons, the arms trade – you may be among
those who are overwhelmed by a feeling of “Help! What
on earth can I, just one person, do about this?” Take
heart. That’s a sane response. It’s the basis for
a whole new attitude to world problems, where change
at the level of the individual is more and more recognised
as essential to change in huge world systems.
-- Scilla
Elworthy
|
Instead
of starting a new nuclear arms race, now is the time to
reclaim our Nation's position of leadership on nuclear nonproliferation
efforts.
-- Dianne Feinstein
|
*
We
have been led to believe that we have come a long
way toward world nuclear disarmament. But that is
not the case. Our government is not doing all that
it could. We must urge our leaders to fulfill the
obligations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The United States must assume world leadership to
end once and for all the threat of nuclear war. It
is our moral responsibility.
~ Harrison
Ford
|
 |
|
|
*
"It
is really a moral and ethical question. Should we
be moving the already insane and expensive global
arms race into space or should the U.S. be doing everything
it can now, before it is too late, to create international
agreements to keep space for peace?"
~ Bruce
Gagnon
“The
role of the U.S. in the new world corporate order
is going to be to export security. That means endless
wars and weapons in space. The Pentagon will send
our kids off to foreign lands to suppress opposition
to corporate globalization. How will we ever end America’s
addiction to war and violence as long as our communities
are dependent on military spending for jobs? We must
work to convert the military industrial complex to
sustainable technologies like windpower, solar, and
mass transit.”
~ Bruce
Gagnon
|
So
far as I can see, the atomic bomb has deadened the
finest feeling that has sustained for ages. There
used to be so-called laws of war, which made it tolerable.
Now we know the truth. War knows no law except that
of might. The atomic bomb brought an empty victory
but it resulted for the time being in destroying the
soul of Japan. What has happened to the soul of the
destroying nation is yet too early to see...
~ Mohandas
Gandhi
|
|
|
|
*
We
should put away the militaristic outlook. The U.S.
should start talking about disarmament, nuclear disarmament,
of the region.
~ Akbar
Ganji
|
|
*
The
fact that lately some circles, not less powerful by
their small size, have been actively promoting certain
theories, as dangerous as they are illusory, of a
"limited", "winnable" or "protracted" nuclear war,
as well as their obsession of "nuclear superiority",
make it advisable to bear always in mind that the
immediate goal of all States, as was expressly declared
in the Final Document of the Special Assembly of 1978,
"is that of the elimination of the danger of a nuclear
war".
~ Alfonso
García Robles
|
 |
If disarmament,
as I have taken the liberty to suggest, were in the future
to become the decisive criterion for the evaluation by the
Nobel Committee of the activities for peace, it would constitute,
just as the Campaign which I have mentioned, another invaluable
element to convince all nuclear powers, including those
which have been more reluctant up to now, of the necessity
to respect the "vital interests" of all peoples and to become
fully aware of the profound truth of the following conclusion
which the United Nations approved by unanimity four years
ago: "Mankind is confronted with a choice: we must halt
the arms race and proceed to disarmament or face annihilation".
~ Alfonso
García Robles
“It
is my view that there is no sensible military use for nuclear
weapons, whether “strategic” weapons, “tactical” weapons,
“theatre” weapons, weapons at sea or weapons in space…”
-- Admiral Noel Gayler, U.S. Navy (ret.)
 |
*
"Licensing
a nuclear power plant is in my view, licensing random
premeditated murder. First of all, when you license
a plant, you know what you're doing--so it's premeditated.
You can't say, "I didn't know." Second, the evidence
on radiation-producing cancer is beyond doubt. I've
worked fifteen years on it [as of 1982], and so have
many others. It is not a question any more: radiation
produces cancer, and the evidence is good all the way
down to the lowest doses."
-- John
Gofman |
"Ionizing
radiation may well be the most important single cause of
cancer, birth defects and genetic disorders... The stakes
for human health are very, very high in radiation matters.
It is essential that people take no chance that conflict-of-interest
is producing radiation databases which cannot be trusted."
-- John
Gofman
|
|
*
It
is my firm belief that the infinite and uncontrollable
fury of nuclear weapons should never be held in the
hands of any mere mortal ever again, for any reason.
~ Mikhail
Gorbachev
|
 |
*
Nuclear weapons elimination will make all states and
their people safer. It is time to assert our right to
live in a nuclear weapons free world.
-- Jonathan
Granoff |
*
Nuclear weapons have forced us to consider whether we will
be the last generation. They challenge the moral dimension
of our humanity. Our technological abilities must not outstrip
our moral insights, rendering us less than fully human.
For in this age, acting without reliance on the gifts of
law, morality and wisdom will be lethal. What right do we
have to place all life on the planet at risk in the service
of a human construction, the state, when it is presently
legally required and within our political means to globally
eliminate all nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons elimination
will make all states and their people safer. It is time
to assert our right to live in a nuclear weapons free world.
-- Jonathan
Granoff
“The
nuclear weapon is obsolete. I want to get rid of them all.”
-- General Charles A. Horner, US Air Force (ret).
|
|
For
the first time in the history of mankind, one generation
literally has the power to destroy the past, the present
and the future, the power to bring time to an end
-- Hubert
Humphrey
|
 |
We
invite people working for peace to span generations
and national boundaries, and gather together to communicate.
Let us firmly join hands and foster an even stronger
network for nuclear abolition and peace.
-- Iccho
Itoh
*
The
time has come for those nations that rely on the force
of nuclear armaments to respectfully heed the voices
of peace-loving people, not least the atomic bomb
survivors, to strive in good faith for nuclear disarmament
and non-proliferation, and to advance towards the
complete abolishment of all such weapons.
-- Iccho
Itoh
|
 |
I
want to see us to explore outer space. But I want
to do it safely, without the loss of human life, and
democratically: where is the free-wheeling debate
on this question? Only one force can stop this mission:
the will of the American people. They have not been
asked. Do they want to endanger their loved ones,
their industry with this launch? One force is more
powerful than plutonium, the spirit of the American
people united."
--
Michio
Kaku
|
|
*
Uranium
is the raw material of a power-elite who has taken
Mother Earth's every living creature hostage.
-- Petra
Kelly
|
|
The
nuclear bomb is the most useless weapon ever invented. It
can be employed to no rational purpose. It is not even
an effective defense against itself.
-- George F. Kennan
|
*
Today,
every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the
day when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every
man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of
Damocles hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable
of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation
or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished
before they abolish us… The mere existence of modern
weapons … is a source of horror and discord and distrust.
-- John
F. Kennedy
|
|
|
|
*
If
we are to achieve a world free from nuclear weapons,
we need the involvement of young people. Youth have
energy, enthusiasm and many good ideas to share. Most
importantly, however, it is young people who will
be inheriting the problems which have been left to
them by the generations past.
-- Marc
Kielburger
|
|
*
Somehow
we must transform the dynamics of the world power
struggle from the negative nuclear arms race which
no one can win to a positive contest to harness man's
creative genius for the purpose of making peace and
prosperity a reality for all of the nations of the
world.
--
Martin
Luther King, Jr
|
 |
|
During
World War II, the Nazis put their victims into gas
chambers and then incinerated them in ovens. While
the Nazis took their victims to the incinerators,
those who possess and threaten to use nuclear weapons
plan to take these weapons — these portable incinerators
— to the victims.
-- David
Krieger
*
Hope
is not enough to change the world, to bring peace,
to end starvation and poverty, to provide a decent
education for all children, or to prevent nuclear
holocaust. Yet it is a critical starting point for
building a better and brighter future. All of us are
challenged to connect hope to action until we have
created a might river that will carve a new path to
the future.
-- David
Krieger
|
 |
*
We all have choices. We can build walls or we can build
bridges. We can give our talents to creating weapons of
annihilation, as so many scientists have done, or we can
work to find solutions to humanities greatest problems.
Our orientation is found not only in our acts, but also
in the policies we support or oppose.
-- David
Krieger
 |
*
We
must work toward the elimination of all nuclear weapons,
and an end to policies which cause this country to
move toward the weaponization of space.
-- Dennis
Kucinich
*
As
citizen-activists the world over merge, they can become
an irresistible force to create peace and protect
the planet. From here will come a new movement to
abolish nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction.
From here will come the demand for sustainable communities,
for new systems of energy, transportation and commerce.
From here comes the future rushing in on us. How does
one acquire the capacity for active citizenship? The
opportunities exist every day...Active citizenship
begins with an envisioning of the desired outcome
and a conscious application of spiritual principles.
--
Dennis
Kucinich
|
|
We
cannot by ourselves reduce the number of nuclear weapons
in the world, but we are doing what has to be done
all over the world if those weapons are one day to
be eliminated. We will not contemplate any circumstance
in which their possession or threatened use is justified.
We reject the secrecy and hypocrisy which surrounds
the continuing refinement of the technology.
-- David
Lange
*
Our
nuclear free status is a statement of our belief that
we and our fellow human beings can build the institutions
which will one day allow us all to renounce the weapons
of mass destruction. We are a small country and what
we can do is limited. But in this as in every other
great issue, we have to start somewhere.
--
David
Lange
|
 |
New
Zealand's nuclear free movement is a broad-based and popular
movement. Our nuclear free status is a challenge to much
that is accepted as orthodox in international relations.
It was formally adopted in the cold war era as a form of
resistance to the dismal doctrines of nuclear deterrence.
It is still a rebuke to the unprincipled exercise of economic
power and military might.
-- David
Lange
Our
nuclear free status means that we decline to acquiesce in
the strategies of nuclear deterrence. We will not turn a
blind eye to them, and pretend that the weapons are no longer
a threat. We will not in any way tolerate the testing of
nuclear weapons, or their manufacture, or their deployment.
--
David
Lange
 |
*
Every adult in the world has some sense that he or
she might be obliterated at any time by these weapons
that we have created.
--
Robert
Jay Lifton
|
 |
*
Drawing
from the tragic lessons of nuclear atrocities experienced
by the Indigenous Peoples we recognize that the testing,
development and use of nuclear weapons is a crime against
all humanitarian law…
-- Hilda
Lini |
*
"We
physicians have focused on the nuclear threat as
the singular issue of our era. We are not indifferent
to other human rights and hard-won civil liberties.
But first we must be able to bequeath to our children
the most fundamental of all rights, which preconditions
all others; the right to survival.
--
Bernard
Lown
|
|
I see
nuclear weapons as the ultimate evil, not just evil, but
the ultimate evil with the potential to make life unlivable
on this planet.
--
Bernard
Lown
nuclear
weapons will not be gotten rid of until the United States
confronts the magnitude of the horror, the tragedy, and
the long-term suffering of the victims
--
Bernard
Lown
nuclear
bombs have made mass murder a reality. Nuclear bombs threaten
humankind.
--
Bernard
Lown
As long
as we rationalize nuclear weapons as “necessary” in order
to save American lives, then nuclear weapons will never
be gotten rid of.
--
Bernard
Lown
We will
forever live with the danger of nuclear weapons because
the nuclear genie has been let out of the bottle. Knowledge
cannot be erased once it arrives. That’s the nature of ideas,
that’s the nature of scientific advancement, and that’s
the nature of widening the horizon of human understanding.
The point is that you have to learn to live with the world
that has been created, but to do this we must structure
a society that is less asymmetric and more equal. We must
find a way to make sure that the fruits produced by the
world are enjoyed equally. That doesn’t mean everybody will
be equal, but that people will not feel constantly cheated
out of their patrimony, or their God-given rights like shelter,
food, health, and education and therefore not be denied
their human potential. The International Declaration of
Human Rights says the right to housing, health, education
should be guaranteed to everyone. The moment these things
are provided, we will have a different world order and nuclear
weapons will become less of a threat.
--
Bernard
Lown
|
|
*
The
right of an individual to refuse to kill, to torture,
or to participate in the preparation for the nuclear
destruction of humanity seems to me to be fundamental.
-- Sean
MacBride
The
big powers are traveling on the dangerous road of
armament. The signpost just ahead of us is 'Oblivion.'
Can the march on this road be stopped? Yes, if public
opinion uses the power it now has.
-- Sean
MacBride
|
Nuclear
weapons production and testing has involved extensive health
and environmental damage …. One of the most remarkable features
of this damage has been the readiness of governments to
harm the very people that they claimed they were protecting
by building these weapons for national security reasons.
In general, this harm was inflicted on people in disregard
of democratic norms. Secrecy, fabrication of data, cover-ups
in the face of attempted public inquiry, and even human
experiments without informed consent have all occurred in
nuclear weapons production and testing programs.
-- Arjun Makhijani, President, Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research
Elimination
of nuclear weapons, so naive, so simplistic, and so idealistic
as to be quixotic? Some may think so. But as human beings,
citizens of nations with power to influence events in the
world, can we be at peace with ourselves if we strive for
less? I think not.
-- Robert McNamara
|
|
*
Environmentalists
have long been fond of saying that the sun is the
only safe nuclear reactor, situated as it is some
ninety-three million miles away.
~ Stephanie
Mills
|
 |
*
Our
immediate striving must be aimed at preventing what,
in the present situation, is the greatest threat to
the very survival of mankind, the nuclear threat.
-- Alva
Myrdal
|
|
|
*
The
sheer folly of trying to defend a nation by destroying
all life on the planet must be apparent to anyone
capable of rational thought. Nuclear capability must
be reduced to zero, globally, permanently. There is
no other option.
-- Queen
Noor of Jordan
|
 |
The
single biggest threat that we face is a nuclear weapon
or some weapon of mass destruction. What that means
is that we have to be extraordinarily aggressive and
vigilant in controlling nuclear proliferation.
-- Barack
Obama
|
It did
not take atomic weapons to make man want peace, a peace
that would last. But the atomic bomb was
the turn of the screw. It has made the prospect of future
war unendurable.
-- J. Robert Oppenheimer
*
The
foes now are universal - poverty, famine, religious
radicalization, desertification, drugs, proliferation
of nuclear weapons, ecological devastation. They threaten
all nations, just as science and information are the
potential friends of all nations. Classical diplomacy
and strategy were aimed at identifying enemies and confronting
them. Now they have to identify dangers, global or local,
and tackle them before they become disasters.
-- Shimon
Peres |
 |
“Today--on
what happens to be the 30th anniversary of the talks that
led to the Limited Test Ban Treaty -- I declare my hope
and declare it from the bottom of my heart that we will
eventually see the time when the number of nuclear weapons
is down to zero and the world is a much better place.”
-- General Colin Powell, US Army (June 10, 1993)
We
seek the elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the
face of the Earth.
-- Ronald Reagan
 |
*
"If
nuclear power plants are safe, let the commerical
insurance industry insure them. Until these most expert
judges of risk are willing to gamble with their money,
I'm not willing to gamble with the health and safety
of my family."
-- Donna
Reed
|
|
*
Extending
social and economic development throughout the world
and eliminating nuclear weapons from military arsenals
are two fundamental prerequisites to replacing the
culture of war with a culture of peace, and building
true security for all the world's people.
-- Douglas
Roche
|
 |
 |
*
"Nuclear
disarmament is not just an ardent desire of the people,
as expressed in many resolutions of the United Nations.
It is a legal commitment ... for the sake of humanity
- we must get rid of all nuclear weapons."
-- Joseph
Rotblat
Indeed,
the very first resolution of the General Assembly
of the United Nations - adopted unanimously - called
for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
-- Joseph
Rotblat
If
the militarily most powerful - and least threatened
- states need nuclear weapons for their security,
how can one deny such security to countries that are
truly insecure? The present nuclear policy is a recipe
for proliferation. It is a policy for disaster.
-- Joseph
Rotblat
|
*
If
you are religious, then remember that this bomb is man's
challenge to God. It's worded quite simply: We have
the power to destroy everything you have created. If
you're not religious, then look at it this way. This
world of ours is four thousand, six hundred million
years old. It could end in an afternoon.
-- Arundhati
Roy |
 |
 |
*
"
This
idea of weapons of mass extermination is utterly horrible
and is something which no one with one spark of humanity
can tolerate.
-- Bertrand
Russell
|
 |
*
Except
for fools and madmen, everyone knows that nuclear
war would he an unprecedented human catastrophe.
-- Carl
Sagan
|
It is
now almost 40 years since the invention of nuclear weapons.
We have not yet experienced a global thermonuclear war --
although on more than one occasion we have come tremulously
close. I do not think our luck can hold forever. Men and
machines are fallible, as recent events remind us. Fools
and madmen do exist, and sometimes rise to power. Concentrating
always on the near future, we have ignored the long-term
consequences of our actions. We have placed our civilization
and our species in jeopardy. Fortunately, it is not yet
too late. We can safeguard the planetary civilization and
the human family if we so choose. There is no more important
or more urgent issue.
-- Carl
Sagan
 |
*
The
use of a mere dozen nuclear weapons ... would be a human
catastrophe without parallel. ... Because so few weapons
can kill so many people, even far-reaching disarmament
proposals would leave us implicated in plans for unprecedented
slaughter of innocent people. The sole measure that
can free us from this burden is abolition.
-- Jonathan
Schell |
[A]
new generation, innocent of the divisions of the Cold War,
this coming-of-age. ... If its members do not feel the urgency
to escape the nuclear danger that some of its parents felt,
neither has it developed the deep attachment to nuclear
arms also often found among their parents, including most
of the governing class. ... The call for abolition should
therefore be, among other things, a call from an older generation
to younger one.
-- Jonathan
Schell
Of course,
some will say the goal [of abolition] is a utopian dream
of human perfection. We needn't worry. There will be more
than enough sins left for everyone to commit after we have
taken nuclear bombs away from ourselves.
-- Jonathan
Schell
*
We are the generation that brought the bomb in. We have
got to be the generation that should take it out.
-- Martin
Sheen |
|
The
last major childhood disease remains and it's the worst
of them all: nuclear war.
-- Beverly Sills
|
Dear
Mr. Andropov,
My
name is Samantha Smith. I am ten years old.
Congratulations on your new job. I have been
worrying about Russia and the United States
getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to
vote to have a war or not? If you aren't please
tell me how you are going to help to not have
a war. This question you do not have to answer,
but I would like to know why you want to conquer
the world or at least our country. God made
the world for us to live together in peace and
not to fight.
Sincerely,
Samantha
Smith
|
|
|
|
|
*
Peace
is the one condition of survival in this nuclear age.
-- Adlai
Stevenson
|
*
here
seems now no reasonable justification for continuing
any civil plutonium program.
-- Jinzaburo
Takagi
My
recent activities have been concentrated on criticism
on and actions against Japan's and worldwide plutonium
programs, since it is, as I believe, one of the greatest
threats to the world...
-- Jinzaburo
Takagi
|
|
"Now
we have something that could really extinguish life on our
planet. Mankind has not found itself in a similar situation
since the end of the palaeolithic age…. In fact, the threat
to mankind's survival has been much greater since 1945 than
it was during the first million years of history."
-- Arnold Toynbee
“As
long as the two nuclear superpowers maintain arsenals in
the tens of thousands of nuclear warheads, there is no way
they can with any consistency urge that other nations not
be allowed to acquire theses weapons.”
-- Admiral Stansfield Turner, USN (ret). and CIA director
(1977-81)
"I
have sacrificed my freedom and risked my life in order to
expose the danger of nuclear weapons which threatens this
whole region. I
acted on behalf of all citizens and all of humanity."
-- Mordechai Vanunu
"More
and more states are realizing the deficit in possessing
nuclear weapons and that nuclear weapons do not promote
economic development in most of the undeveloped states.
These countries are ready to back and support any initiative
that will bring the end of nuclear weapons in the entire
world. They know that the abolition of nuclear weapons in
Europe, the US and the entire world will only bring help
and encouragement to global economic activities, including
globalization. So anti-nuclear activists should work in
this new field to use economic reasons and alliances to
defeat nuclear weapons. This could be done especially at
economic summits like the G-8 and WTO meetings where decisions
or declarations could be issued to abolish nuclear weapons.
Rather than fighting the WTO like anarchist environmentalists,
we can recreate the WTO and G-8 to begin working toward
zero nuclear weapons."
-- Mordechai Vanunu
|
We
do not believe that a nuclear war should be fought
and we do not believe that a nuclear war can be won.
-- Atal
Bihari Vajpayee
|
|
The
main reason we are held hostage by the most destructive
technology on earth is simple: the complete lack of
international resolve to ban nuclear weapons and banish
them from the arsenals of the world.
--
Christopher
Weeramantry
But
elimination will only happen if all countries — nuclear
and non-nuclear states — genuinely work towards this
result. Nuclear states must abolish their arsenals,
as was indicated by the unanimous opinion of the international
Court of Justice, the highest international tribunal.
The five nuclear states seem to expect others to refrain
from obtaining bombs while at the same time maintaining
their own caches of deadly weapons.
-- Christopher
Weeramantry
*
The
creation of a nuclear weapons convention is not only
achievable, it is imperative if civilisation is to
survive.
-- Christopher
Weeramantry
|
|
*
Mankind
needs peace more than ever, for our entire planet, threatened
by nuclear war, is in danger of total destruction. A
destruction only man can provoke, only man can prevent.
-- Elie
Wiesel |
 |
 |
*
We
believe in taking down the barriers, but we also believe
in the most energetic reconciliation among peoples
by getting them to know each other, talk each other's
languages, understand each other's fears and beliefs,
getting to know each other physically, philosophically,
and spiritually. It is much harder to kill your near
neighbor than the thousands of unknown and hostile
aliens at the other end of a nuclear missile. We have
to create a world in which there are no unknown, hostile
aliens at the other end of any missiles.
-- Betty
Williams
|
|
*
...nuclear threats and nuclear weapons are the last
argument of weak, stressed and irresponsible politicians.
People must act very quicky to stop the movement to
nuclear war.
-- Alla
Yaroshinskaya
|
 |
The
world was shaken twice in the last decade: once when the
USSR dissolved, and once when terrorists attacked the US
on September 11. In the Gorbachev era, we actually lost
our way to change the world for the better. We lost some
wonderful possibilities to begin a process for deep reductions
of the stockpile, and to eliminate nuclear weapons once
and for all. Now one of the main obstacles to achieving
a nuclear-free world is the new US Nuclear Posture Review
(NPR). What can we do? Leaders are still sure that peace
is possible because their countries have nuclear weapons.
I am sure nuclear threats and nuclear weapons are the last
argument of weak, stressed and irresponsible politicians.
People must act very quicky to stop the movement to nuclear
war. But Russian people do not wish to spend money for new
weapons of mass destruction; Russian people wish to build
a new peaceful life after years of the Communists? totalitarian
regime and many years of transition-period chaos. Russia
today wishes to build its civil economy, not military industry.
But the US NPR and the US deployment of space-based national
missile defense (NMD) will provoke Russia to build new nuclear
armaments. Combined with NATO expansion (to the Russian
border), these US initiatives will break down the whole
world order, and every nation will pay their own political
and economic price for that nuclear apartheid.
-- Alla
Yaroshinskaya
A
convention on the comprehensive ban of nuclear weapons should
be negotiated. Since biological and chemical weapons have
been prohibited, there is no reason why nuclear weapons,
which are more destructive, should not be comprehensively
banned and thoroughly destroyed. All it takes to reach this
objective is strong political will.
-- Jiang Zemin
