EarthAction

Join Us to Count the Nuclear Weapons Money

One trillion dollars is being allocated over the next ten years to modernize the nuclear arsenals of nine countries.

The corporations making these weapons lobby for increased spending on nuclear weapons, stimulating the nuclear arms race and increasing the risk of a nuclear war.

Count the Nuclear Weapons Money will demonstrate the scale of this investment, and how it could instead be devoted to peace and humanitarian needs.

While governments meet at the United Nations in New York for the first ever United Nations High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, we will be outside the UN counting one million specially designed notes each of $1 million value, adding up to $1 trillion.

Front of a $1 million note depicting what the nuclear weapons budget currently supports.

Help us count the nuclear weapons money

Join us between May 10-16 as we count ($100 million per minute, $6 billion per hour, $146 billion per day for seven days). While counting we will highlight economic, social and environmental areas in which this money could instead be invested.

Already we have parliamentarians, civil society leaders, artists, sports stars, musicians, activists, religious leaders, youth, war veterans and others signed up to count the money for 20-30 minutes each.

Click here to sign-up as a money counter.

Back of a $1 million note indicating what the money should instead be spent on. Design by Michael Green.

Please donate to make this action a success

It costs money to move the nuclear weapons money. Please donate so that we can print the 1 million notes, publicise the action, create a powerful installation of the counted money, and support the advocacy to end investments in nuclear weapons.

For more information see our GoFundMe campaign.

Move the Nuclear Weapons Money

The New York action is part of Move the Nuclear Weapons Money, a global campaign to cut nuclear weapons budgets, divest from nuclear weapons corporations and move the money to meet areas of human need, such as ending poverty, protecting the climate, supporting renewable energy, creating jobs, and providing adequate healthcare, housing and education for all.

The campaign was launched in October 2016 by the International Peace Bureau, World Future Council and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, building on work these organizations have done for over a decade on nuclear divestment and cutting nuclear weapons budgets.
The campaign now includes a number of other organisations and networks including the Basel Peace Office, Global Security Institute, UNFOLD ZERO, World Federalist Movement and the Abolition 2000 Working Group on Economic Dimensions of Nuclearism.

The campaign works closely with the Global Campaign on Military Spending.

Press conference at the United Nations

Jackie Cabasso speaking at a press conference at the United Nations for the Count the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign, March 28, 2018

Move the Nuclear Weapons Money held a press conference at the United Nations on March 28, 2018 to launch our new online platform and announce Count the Nuclear Weapons Money.

At the press conference we also promoted the UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament and released an open letter to the leaders of USA, South Korea and North Korea signed by more than 100 US civil society groups expressing support for the upcoming inter-Korean summit in April and the US-DPRK summit in May.

See Amid growing nuclear dangers, experts highlight importance of the UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament.

READ MORE AT UNFOLD ZERO

Nuclear Abolition Campaigners Announce New Initiatives at UN Press Conference

Abolition 2000 member organizations organized a press conference at the United Nations in New York today to highlight the critical need for successful diplomacy on nuclear-weapons related conflicts, promote the upcoming UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, and announce two related initiatives.

These were an Open Letter to the Leaders of USA, South Korea and North Korea and Count the Nuclear Weapons Money, a civil society action to take place during the UN High Level Conference.

Open letter to leaders of USA, South Korea and North Korea

Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of Western States Legal Foundation, released the open letter, which has been signed by more than 100 US civil society groups. The letter expresses support for the upcoming inter-Korean summit in April and the US-DPRK summit in May, and urges the leaders “to patiently and diligently seek common ground.”

The letter states: “Dialogue and diplomacy is essential if we are to prevent a war that would likely result in an unthinkable disaster for the Korean Peninsula, the United States and the world…..We recognize that one encounter between US and North Korean leaders will not likely produce an agreement that leads to a lasting solution. But the planned summits offer the potential for starting a serious process that could move us decisively away from the current crisis.”

Support for the UN High Level Conference

"The United Nations has key roles to play in promoting and supporting diplomacy, nuclear risk-reduction and disarmament,' said Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute. "The upcoming UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament comes at a vital time to build global support from UN Member States. We encourage all UN members to participate at the highest level, and to give full support to nuclear risk-reduction and disarmament measures."

“States could use this opportunity to either sign the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons or commit to a negotiation process to stop the new arms race, lower nuclear risks, and fulfill existing disarmament obligations by agreeing to a phased process of reductions leading to the universal, legally enforceable, verifiable elimination of all nuclear weapons,” said Granoff. “As a first step toward a safer saner world, the nine States with the weapons must all pledge never to initiate a nuclear war.”

For more information on how to be engaged in the UN High Level Conference, see Abolition 2000 working group on the 2018 UN High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament.

Move the Nuclear Weapons Money

The UN High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament is scheduled to take place in New York May 14 -16. Nuclear disarmament campaigners plan to use the occasion to focus public attention on the nuclear-weapons industry, a key stimulus to the nuclear arms race.

“Companies manufacturing nuclear weapons and their delivery systems are a powerful lobby to increase nuclear weapons budgets, and to expand nuclear weapons policies in order to justify this massive public spending,” said Alyn Ware, Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament.

“Legislators in our networks are becoming increasingly concerned about the risks of the nuclear arms race, and the fact that budget investments in nuclear weapons reduces the funds available for other important needs,” Ware said. “They have joined with civil society in Move the Nuclear Weapons Money, a global campaign to cut nuclear weapons budgets, and end investments in nuclear weapons companies.”

Count the Nuclear Weapons Money

‘The public is not aware of the colossal amount of money wasted on nuclear weapons, and what an incredible contribution this money could instead make to ending poverty, protecting the climate and providing education, housing and basic health care for all,’ said Holger Gūssefeld, Special Projects Coordinator for the World Future Council. “We will demonstrate this by counting out 1 trillion dollars –- the nuclear weapons budget for the coming decade — while the UN High-Level Conference is taking place.”

“Artists have designed mock $1 million notes. We will count 1 million of these one-by-one over seven days and nights outside the United Nations and in public locations in New York,’ said Gene Seidman, Project Director for Count the Nuclear Weapons Money. “While counting – at $100 million per minute – we will shine the light of shame on companies manufacturing these weapons of mass annihilation, and we will highlight areas of economic, environmental and social need that could instead be met with these funds.”

For more information see Move the Nuclear Weapons Money and the Abolition 2000 Working Group on Economic Dimensions of Nuclearism.

From The Basel Peace Office Team

Takoma Park Becomes First US City to Declare Its Compliance with Nuclear Ban Treaty

Photo Credit: Google "labeled for non-commercial reuse"

TAKOMA PARK, MD, March 15, 2018 — The City Council of Takoma Park, Maryland, last night (March 14^th) voted unanimously on a resolution that reaffirms the city’s support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or ‘Nuclear Ban Treaty.’

The Nuclear Ban Treaty was adopted last year at the UN by 122 countries. The Treaty comprehensively prohibits everything to do with nuclear weapons and makes these weapons illegal under international law. Fifty-seven countries have signed it so far, and as many as 146 countries are expected to sign it in the coming months.

The United States is not one of them, but as with the Paris Climate Agreement, that does not stop cities, states, businesses, colleges and faith communities from complying with this Treaty.

Takoma Park was one of the first cities in the US to declare itself a ‘Nuclear-Free Zone’ back in 1983. Since then, through a city ordinance, Takoma Park has banned companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons from doing business in Takoma Park, or from bidding on City contracts, and has avoided investment in companies engaged in the production of nuclear weapons.

Since these prohibitions mean that Takoma Park already complies with the new Treaty, the March 14 resolution declaring the City ‘treaty compliant’ was more of a formality. As the first city in the US to do so, however, Takoma Park has led the way for many more to follow.

As many as 220 Nuclear Free Zones were established across the US during the 1980s. Many of these, including Chicago, still have legally-binding ordinances on their books which comply with the new Treaty. Others, including New York City, are now looking into this afresh in light of this Treaty.

By aligning themselves with the rest of the world in support of the Nuclear Ban Treaty, Takoma Park is turning its back on the $1.2 trillion plans to upgrade and modernize the US nuclear arsenal. Takoma Park is the first to officially do so, but it will not be the last.

By Tim Wallis, Treaty Compliance Campaign

7 Days in the Life of Avaaz...

Colombian Deputy Minister receives Avaaz petition delivery last week :)

We may have won our campaign to stop Colombia’s massive deforestation!

The team and members brought a million-strong petition (and several cute kids) to a key minister this week, and got 42 election candidates signed on to our 5-point forest pledge! After satellite pictures we obtained showed massive deforestation in Colombia, the President flew over the land we were campaigning for, and it looks like we’re going to win! Here's an update (in Spanish) from Ana Sofia.

Who wouldn't want to protect this?

We might help win the largest ocean reserve in the Atlantic!

Last week we met with the key official pushing this ocean-saving plan at the Ministry of Environment in Brazil. As we entered the room, they were looking at the final draft of the project and the official told us: “We need Avaaz to win this! When are you launching this campaign?!” The minister actually wanted our help to win over the rest of the Cabinet and the President! Video update from Diego (in Portuguese) here.

Our fake far-right leader on his fake tour of southern Italy got over 100 media hits!

We worked our hearts out to stop a far-right win in Italy!

With a fascist-led coalition close to winning the election on Sunday, we were flat-out for a month -- reaching millions of voters in close races over email, on Facebook, and in the media, asking them to cooperate across a splintered opposition, and vote for the candidate most likely to defeat the far-right. Our polling showed our impact, and Avaaz was constantly attacked in the right-wing press (e.g. here and here) and our Senior Campaigner Luca got threatening phone calls.

The election largely turned on the South, so last week we also staged a hilarious fake tour of the South by the far-right leader -- who once said Southerners smelled worse than dogs -- that generated over 100 media articles! Examples here, here and here, and here’s an update from Luca (in Italian). The media likes to hype the fascists, but the result was a clean sweep of the south and the far-right coalition is FAR short of the majority we feared!

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Doomsday Clock Moves Closer to Midnight. UN High-Level Conference Becomes More Important

Photo Credit: Basel Peace Office

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists today moved the hands of the symbolic Doomsday Clock to 2 Minutes to Midnight, indicating that the world is the closest to possible nuclear armageddon since the height of the Cold War in 1953. 

The group of experts who made the adjustment to the clock pointed to rising nuclear tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, specifically “hyperbolic rhetoric and provocative actions on both sides.”

The group, which was founded in 1945 by Manhattan Project scientists, specifically notes “the decline of U.S. leadership and a related demise of diplomacy under the Trump administration” as a global concern and a reason for this year’s leap closer to midnight.

Nuclear risk reduction measures 

Today's announcement highlights the need for nuclear risk reduction measures, such as those being advanced by U.S. Senator Ed Markey, Co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament. 

Markey has introduced legislation into the Senate (with companion legislation in the House introduced by Ted Lieu) to restrict the authority of the U.S. President to launch a nuclear attack without first consulting congress.

Markey has also organized joint congressional letters to the U.S. Secretaries of State, Defense and Energy calling on the current Nuclear Posture Review to include measures to lower nuclear threat postures, reduce the risk of nuclear weapons use, and advance the goal of the global elimination of nuclear weapons.

See Joint letter to Trump administration on reducing role of nuclear weaponsand Joint letter to the Trump administration opposing the production of new destabilizing nuclear weapons.

UN High-Level Conference

In May 2018, the United Nations General Assembly will hold the first ever High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament.

In light of the increased risks of nuclear war, this conference has become even more important than when it was first proposed to the UN five years ago. World leaders participating in this event should be encouraged - and will be expected - to take action to reduce these risks and advance nuclear disarmament.

Take action: 

Call on your government to attend the UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament at the highest level (Prime Minister, President or Foreign Minister) and to do their best at the conference to reduce nuclear risks and advance the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Click here for a sample letter and list of government contacts.

From the Basel Peace Office

Call on the UN Security Council to Support Nuclear Disarmament at January 18 Special Session

The United Nations Council will hold a special thematic debate on January 18 on the topic of 'Weapons of Mass Destruction and Confidence Building Measures'.

The debate will be chaired by Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev, and will have a strong focus on diplomacy and trust-building as important elements to prevent proliferation of WMD and to advance disarmament.

Kazakhstan has undertaken national and regional disarmament initiatives, including relinquishing all the nuclear weapons that were on their territory and negotiating a Central Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone. They have also put forward a number of disarmament proposals to the United Nations, including:

•  a call 'on all Member States, especially the Security Council's permanent members, to set a goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons by the UN's 100th Anniversary in 2045.'
• a proposal for UNmembers to contribute 1% of their military spending to fund the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).

The veto power of the permanent Members (China, France, Russia, UK and USA) makes it difficult to adopt resolutions on these proposals at the Security Council.

However, support from other Security Council members on January 18 could help pave the way fora successful UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament in May 2018, which will not be subject to such veto power.

From the UNFOLD ZERO monthly newsletter

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Human Rights Day, Dec 10: The UN, Youth, Diplomacy and Disarmament

UNFOLD ZERO encourages you to commemorate Human Rights Day today (December 10) by advancing the human right to freedom-from-the-threat-of-nuclear weapons.

We recommend two recent appeals on nuclear weapons and human rights to send to your parliamentarians and governments. Both of the appeals highlight the threat of nuclear weapons to current and future generations, and call on governments to undertake significant nuclear disarmament measures at the 2018 UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament.

Such measures could include non-nuclear states signing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (today being highlighted by the Nobel Peace Award) if they have not already done so, and nuclear reliant states agreeing to no-first-use as a step towards comprehensive prohibition.

From the UNFOLD ZERO monthly newsletter

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International Campaign To Abolish Nuclear Weapons Wins 2017 Nobel Peace Prize

Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) receives a bottle of champagne from her husband Will Fihm Ramsay (R) next to Daniel Hogsta, coordinator, while they celebrate after ICAN won the Nobel Peace Prize 2017, in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters

Fihn said she could not believe the award was real until the official announcement, and thought the call, made minutes before the ceremony, was a “prank.”

For Fihn, the award is a statement on “unacceptable” nuclear reliance.

“We can’t threaten to indiscriminately slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians in the name of security. That’s not how you build security,” she said.

The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

The Nobel Committee said the organization, which is made up of non-governmental organizations from more than 100 countries, is being honored for its work “to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.”

ICAN’s immediate goal is to support and implement the 2017 United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted this summer. It’s the first treaty negotiated for nuclear disarmament in 20 years, the organization said.

The world’s nuclear powers, including the United States and Russia — who lead the nuclear stockpile race with around 6,700 and 7,000 nuclear weapons respectively — opposed the talks, citing a disregard for “the realities of the international security environment.”

“We do not intend to sign, ratify or ever become party to it,” U.S., UK and French representatives to the UN said in a statement earlier this year.

To go into effect, the UN’s treaty needs 50 countries to ratify the deal. So far, 53 countries have signed onto the deal, but only three — Guyana, the Vatican and Thailand — have ratified it.

Beatrice Fihn, executive director of ICAN, expressed shock at receiving the award when she received the news from Oslo.

“What an honor. I feel like I have to collect myself for a couple of seconds,” she said during the initial phone call.

By Jennifer Hijazi, October 6, 2017, PBS News

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September 26th: Reach High for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World

credit: unfoldzero.org

September 26 has been chosen by the United Nations to be the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Abolition Day)

On this day, join parliamentarians, mayors, religious communities, youth, artists, activists, and others around the world to Reach HIGH for a nuclear-weapon-free world.

• Take a photo of yourself, or you and others, on a high place or reaching high, or lifting a peace sign/object up high;
• Post your photo on social media with the hashtags #ReachHIGH2018, #Sep26dontNukeUs, #abolishnukes, and/or #YouthAgainstNukes.

Contact UNFOLD ZERO for a sample peace sign to use in your action.

Credit: unfoldzero.org

Promote a nuclear-weapon-free-world

Reach HIGH for a nuclear-weapon-free world aims to raise awareness about the 2018 UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, and to push governments to adopt significant nuclear disarmament measures at the conference. These could include:

• Non-nuclear governments ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons;
• Nuclear-armed countries announcing reductions in stockpiles and an end to nuclear modernization;
• Nuclear-armed and allied States adopting a no-first-use declaration, and agreeing on a framework for achieving a nuclear-weapon-free world;
• Starting negotiations for nuclear-weapon-free zones in North East Asia and the Middle East.

Call on your government to attend at the highest level

The best way to ensure success of the 2018 UN High Level Conference is for governments to attend at the highest level (Prime Minister/President or Foreign Minister). If they do this, there is every expectation that they will adopt, or make significant progress on, nuclear disarmament at the conference.

Click here for a sample letter to your government. And remember to keep watching www.unfoldzero.org for updates and events.

Basel Declaration on Trans-Generational Crimes of Nuclear Weapons & Nuclear Energy

Participants of the Basel Conference on Human Rights, Future Generations, and Crimes in the Nuclear Age. Credit: IPPNW.org

The participants in the international conference Human Rights, Future Generations and Crimes in the Nuclear Age, held in Basel from September 14-17, 2017, affirm that the risks and impacts of nuclear weapons, depleted uranium weapons and nuclear energy, which are both transnational and trans-generational, constitute a violation of human rights, a transgression of international humanitarian and environmental law, and a crime against future generations.

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