Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

On Sunday, January 26, IPPNW, ICAN, and Pugwash hosted a webinar, “Autonomous Armageddon: Nuclear Weapons and AI“, to explore the alarming dangers posed by the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into nuclear weapons systems. Watch the recording using this link.

Original photo by Mark Graves/Oregonian

Dear Oregon PSR Community, 

This post-election period is a challenging time for many, filling us with grief and anxiety for what our future holds. Today, we reach out to validate this collective despair, a numbing shock resulting from the national election results. We encourage you to breathe  - and to nourish yourself and each other. Then, once again, we will find ourselves in a place that calls us to act and organize as a community against weaponized fear, violent prejudice, vast income inequality, and alienation.

Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has announced that they are cancelling the November 19th and December 4th hearing for Texas based Zenith Energy's air quality permit. DEQ says that after receiving questions and concerns from community members (that's us and our partners!) they have determined they need more information from Zenith before continuing with the hearings. 

Reworld Marion, previously knows as Covanta Marion, announced that will be ceasing operations at their Oregon incinerator facility along with the last two mass burn facilities in California by December 31, 2024. This is a huge win for Oregon PSR! We have been working for over 10 years to expose the realities of potential health risks from air toxins, green washing of waste-to-energy incinerator campaigns (which U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data says produces more pollution and global warming emissions per unit of electricity produced than coal-fired power plants), and the environmental racism around incinerators locations (Energy Justice Network). All of our hard work will pay off on December 31st, when Reworld intends to close their mass burn facility in Marion County, Oregon.

Oregon PSR and environmental justice advocates within Multnomah County have worked tirelessly to hold polluters accountable for their contributions to the climate crisis. Due to this work, Multnomah County has brought a lawsuit against major polluters such as Exxon Mobil and Shell, consultant agency McKenzie, and PNW gas utility NW Natural, along with the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM) - a non-profit research group. The quit alleges that the knew about the impacts of fossil fuels on the climate crisis and intentionally led marketing and educational campaigns that fed misinformation to the public. Specifically, the suit highlights that OISM led the misinformation campaigns with funding from Exxon and other fossil fuel companies. 

You can read the full article here.

This article was originally published in the New York Times on October 10, 2024 by Karen Zraick. 

We are thrilled to announce that Samantha Paladini (she/her), previously our QVS Program Assistant, is our new Peace and Justice Program Manager. Samantha will be working closely with board members Andy Harris and Elaine McKenzie to reorganize the Peace Work Group into the Peace and Justice Action Team. We hope you will join us as we organize for a more peaceful and just Oregon for all. We took the time to ask Samantha about her new position and her thoughts on rebuilding our essential Peace and Justice program.

Read on to see Samantha's answers!