Petition to Portland City Council on Supporting the UN Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty
The 13,850+ nuclear weapons in the world today pose an unacceptable threat to humanity. Even without a nuclear war, the development, testing, and possession of nuclear weapons cause unacceptable humanitarian and environmental harm. Recognizing this, 122 nations voted in July of 2017 at the United Nations to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The United States boycotted the treaty negotiations and plans to spend $1.2 trillion over the next decade on a vast nuclear weapons buildup which will further fuel a renewed global nuclear arms race.
Petition to Portland City Council on Supporting the UN Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty
The 13,850+ nuclear weapons in the world today pose an unacceptable threat to humanity. Even without a nuclear war, the development, testing, and possession of nuclear weapons cause unacceptable humanitarian and environmental harm. Recognizing this, 122 nations voted in July of 2017 at the United Nations to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The United States boycotted the treaty negotiations and plans to spend $1.2 trillion over the next decade on a vast nuclear weapons buildup which will further fuel a renewed global nuclear arms race.
We need a fundamentally different nuclear weapons policy. As concerned Americans, we the undersigned call on the Portland City Council to pass a resolution supporting the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and urging Congress to lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war. Cities would be the most impacted by a nuclear war, and Portland taxpayers are already spending $142,412,948 annually on nuclear weapons, money that could be better spent on housing, education, health care, and climate justice for our community. We urge you to step up as leaders for nuclear sanity and protect Portlanders from the harms of nuclear weapons and war.
Please donate to Oregon PSR to support our nuclear disarmament work.
Thanks for Attending The Unequal Impacts of Nuclear Weapons: Hiroshima & Nagasaki Memorial 2019!
Oregon PSR expresses our sincere appreciation to everyone who joined us on the evening of Tuesday, August 6th at the Japanese American Historical Plaza for the annual Portland-area Hiroshima and Nagasaki memorial event. This year's event, The Unequal Impacts of Nuclear Weapons: Hiroshima & Nagasaki Memorial 2019, explored the disproportionate impacts that nuclear weapons have had, and continue to have, on women, children, indigenous communities, and communities of color around the world.
Read moreOregon PSR State Legislative Session Wrap-Up 2019
Oregon PSR staff and members mobilized to advocate for and against a long list of bills in the 2019 state legislative session in Salem this year. The 2019 session yielded a wide range of progressive, health-protective policies and discussions and concluded with a significant handful of long-awaited victories, including support for nuclear disarmament, better oil train safety measures, equal access to roads for all Oregonians, and a major step forward on cleaning up Oregon's dirty diesel problem. Several dangerous measures that would have weakened Oregon's renewable energy goals and created loopholes for new nuclear power were successfully blocked from passage. We thank all those who volunteered their time and energy to advance our mission to protect public health from the gravest threats to survival in the Oregon state legislature this year.
Read moreThe Unequal Impacts of Nuclear Weapons: Hiroshima & Nagasaki Memorial 2019
Please save the date and plan to join us on Tuesday, August 6th, 6:00 - 7:00 PM at the Japanese American Historical Plaza (NW Naito Parkway and Couch Street on the Portland waterfront) for the annual Portland-area Hiroshima and Nagasaki memorial event. This year's event, The Unequal Impacts of Nuclear Weapons, will explore the disproportionate impacts that nuclear weapons have on women, children, indigenous communities, and communities of color.
Read moreVictory! Oregon Supports Nuclear Ban Treaty
Oregon House Votes to Urge Congress to Lead Global Effort to Prevent Nuclear War
On Monday, June 24th, 2019, Oregon’s House of Representatives voted to approve Senate Joint Memorial 5 (SJM 5), which urges congress to lead a global effort to reduce the threat of nuclear war, making it the second state in the nation after California to pass such legislation in both chambers. New Jersey's Assembly has also passed a similar bill. The bill passed the Oregon Senate on May 20th.
Read moreA Morally Reprehensible Tour of the Hanford Nuclear Site
This column was written by Oregon PSR program assistant Madison Arnold-Scerbo, and was originally published in Street Roots. Interested in learning more about Hanford or how to go on one of these tours yourself? Send an email to madison@oregonpsr.org.
About 74,000 people died when the United States deployed a nuclear bomb on Nagasaki in 1945. Thousands more died and suffered health consequences over the following decades.
Thousands of people continue to face negative health consequences from the intentional releases of radiation and atomic waste from nuclear tests during the Cold War in the United States.
At least 120 Hanford workers in and around the tank farms have been exposed to toxic vapors since January 2015. This exposure can lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, decrease in lung capacity, toxic encephalopathy and cancer.
But you won’t learn any of these facts by attending a tour of the Hanford nuclear facility near Richland, Wash., the most polluted place in the Western Hemisphere. I know, because I attended two of these tours. I sat through eight hours of romanticization of nuclear weapons and patriotic indoctrination. Both tours I attended, Clean Up and B Reactor, provide a misleading and one-sided view one of the darkest periods of our history.
Read more