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Helen Caldicott | |
---|---|
Born | Helen Mary Caldicott 7 August 1938 |
Occupation(s) | Physician, activist |
Spouse | William Caldicott |
Children | Philip, Penny, William Jr |
Website | http://www.helencaldicott.com/ – Helen Caldicott's official website |
Helen Mary Caldicott (born 7 August 1938) is an Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate. She founded several associations dedicated to opposing the use of nuclear power, depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation, and military action in general.
Helen Caldicott was born on 7 August 1938, in Melbourne, Australia, the daughter of factory manager Philip Broinowski and Mary Mona Enyd (Coffey) Broinowski, an interior designer. She attended public school, except for four years at Fintona Girls' School at Balwyn, a private secondary school. When she was 17, she enrolled at the University of Adelaide medical school and graduated in 1961 with a MBBS degree. In 1962, she married William Caldicott, a paediatric radiologist who has since worked with her in her campaigns. They have three children, Philip, Penny, and William Jr. [1] [ dubious ]
Caldicott and her husband moved to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1966 and she entered a three-year fellowship in nutrition at Harvard Medical School. Returning to Adelaide in 1969, she accepted a position in the renal unit of Queen Elizabeth Hospital. In the early 1970s, she completed a year's residency and a two-year internship in paediatrics at the Adelaide Childrens Hospital to qualify as a paediatric physician so she could legitimately establish the first Australian clinic for cystic fibrosis at the Adelaide Childrens Hospital. The clinic now has the best survival rates in Australia.[ citation needed ] In 1977, she joined the staff of the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston as an instructor in pediatrics. She taught paediatrics at the Harvard Medical School from 1977 to 1980. [1]
Caldicott's interest in nuclear issues was sparked when she read the 1957 Nevil Shute book On the Beach , a novel about a nuclear holocaust set in Australia. [2]
In the 1970s, she gained prominence in Australia, New Zealand and North America, speaking on the health hazards of radiation from the perspective of paediatrics. Her early achievements included convincing Australia to sue France over its atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific in 1971 and 1972, which brought the practice to an end. She also informed Australian trade unions about the medical and military dangers of uranium mining, which led to the three-year banning of the mining and export of uranium. [3]
After visiting the Soviet Union in 1979 with an AFSC delegation and upon learning the impending US deployment of cruise missiles (which would end arms control) and Pershing II missiles that could hit Moscow from Europe in 3 minutes, [4] Caldicott left her medical career to concentrate on calling the world's attention to what she referred to as the "insanity" of the nuclear arms race and the growing reliance on nuclear power. In 1978 she reinvigorated Physicians for Social Responsibility. Over time she and others recruited 23,000 physicians to this organisation which, through wide educational efforts, taught the US public about the dire medical implications of both nuclear power and nuclear war. In 1985 this national organisation and many others, she founded around the world were awarded the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. She was herself nominated for the Nobel Prize by Linus Pauling, himself a Nobel winner. [4]
In 1980, she founded the Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament (WAND) in the United States, which was later renamed Women's Action for New Directions. It is a group dedicated to reducing or redirecting government spending away from nuclear energy and nuclear weapons towards what the group perceives as unmet social issues. [5]
Caldicott stood as an independent candidate for the Australian House of Representatives at the 1990 federal election, contesting the Division of Richmond, against the Leader of the National Party, Charles Blunt. She polled 23.3% of the votes; not enough to win, but her preferences went mostly to the Labor candidate, Neville Newell, electing him and unseating Blunt.
In 2002 Caldicott released The New Nuclear Danger, a commentary on the George Bush Military-Industrial Complex. The book was reviewed by Ivan Eland of The Independent Institute. He wrote, "She makes many cogent criticisms about current and prior administrations’ nuclear policies and the excesses of the government-dominated military-industrial complex associated with nuclear weapons, but her often valid points are undermined by other far-fetched or alarmist arguments, sloppy research, and haphazard footnoting." [6]
In 2008 Caldicott founded the Helen Caldicott Foundation for a Nuclear Free Future which, for over four years, produced a weekly radio commentary, "If You Love This Planet". [7]
In April 2011, Caldicott was involved in a public argument in The Guardian with British journalist George Monbiot. Monbiot expressed great concern at what he saw as a failure by Caldicott to provide adequate justification for any of her arguments. Regarding Caldicott's book Nuclear Power is Not The Answer, he wrote: "The scarcity of references to scientific papers and the abundance of unsourced claims it contains amaze me." [8] [9] Caldicott claimed, "As we have seen, he and other nuclear industry apologists sow confusion about radiation risks and, in my view, in much the same way that the tobacco industry did in previous decades about the risks of smoking." [10] Also in 2011, Caldicott made a written submission regarding the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station new build project in Canada in which she asserts that plutonium can cause cancer of the testicles after accumulation in these organs. [11]
In 2014, Physicians for Social Responsibility hosted a lecture on "Fukushima's Ongoing Impact" by Caldicott in Seattle, Washington. [12]
Caldicott has been awarded 21 honorary doctoral degrees[ citation needed ]. In 1982, she received the Humanist of the Year award from the American Humanist Association. [13] In 1992, Caldicott received the 1992 Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston for her leadership in the worldwide disarmament movement. She was inducted to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women [14] in 2001. She was awarded the Lannan Foundation Prize for Cultural Freedom in 2003, and in 2006, the Peace Organisation of Australia presented her with the inaugural Australian Peace Prize "for her longstanding commitment to raising awareness about the medical and environmental hazards of the nuclear age". The Smithsonian Institution has named Caldicott as one of the most influential women of the 20th century. [15] She is a member of the scientific committee of the Fundacion IDEAS, a progressive think tank in Spain. She serves on the Advisory Council of the Nuclear Age Peace. [16] In 2009, she was designated a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project. [17]
Title | Year of Publication | Publisher(s) | ISBN | Role |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do! | 1978 (revised 1994) | W.W. Norton & Company | ISBN 0393310116 | Author |
Missile Envy: The Arms Race and Nuclear War | 1984 | William Morrow & Co | ISBN 978-0688019549 | Author |
If You Love This Planet | 1992 | W. W. Norton & Company | ISBN 978-0393308358 | Author |
A Desperate Passion: An Autobiography | 1996 | W.W. Norton & Company | ISBN 0393316807 | Author |
Metal of Dishonor: How Depleted Uranium Penetrates Steel, Radiates People and Contaminates the Environment | 1997 | International Action Center | ISBN 0965691608 | Author |
The New Nuclear Danger: George W.Bush's Military-industrial Complex | 2002 (revised 2004) | The New Press Scribe Publications (Australia) | ISBN 1565847407 , 0908011652 | Author |
Nuclear Power is Not the Answer | 2006 | The New Press | ISBN 978-1595580672 | Author |
War in Heaven: The Arms Race in Outer Space | 2007 | The New Press | ISBN 978-1595581143 | Co-author with Craig Eisendrath |
Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy | 2007 | RDR Books | ISBN 978-1571431738 | Author of Afterword (author is Arjun Makhijani) |
If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Save the Earth | 2009 | W.W. Norton & Company | ISBN 978-0393333022 | Author |
Loving This Planet | 2012 | The New Press | ISBN 978-1595580672 | Editor |
Crisis Without End: The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe | 2014 | The New Press | ISBN 978-1595589606 | Editor |
Sleepwalking to Armageddon | 2017 | The New Press | ISBN 978-1620972465 | Editor |
Caldicott has appeared in numerous adult films and television programs. In the early 1980s, she was the subject of two documentaries: the Oscar-nominated 1981 feature-length film Eight Minutes to Midnight: A Portrait of Dr. Helen Caldicott and the 1982 Oscar-winning National Film Board of Canada short documentary, If You Love This Planet . [19]
A 2004 documentary film, Helen's War: Portrait of a Dissident, [20] provides a look into Caldicott's life through the eyes of her niece, filmmaker Anna Broinowski.
Caldicott is featured along with foreign affairs experts, space security activists and military officials in interviews in Denis Delestrac's 2010 feature documentary Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space .
The 2013 documentary Pandora's Promise also features footage of Caldicott, interspersed with counter-points to her assertions regarding the health impacts of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Title | Director | Production Company | Year |
---|---|---|---|
The World Awaits | Don Haderlein | 2015 (in production) | |
The Oracles of Pennsylvania Avenue | Tim Wilkerson | 2013 | |
United Natures | Peter Charles Downey | United Natures Independent Media | 2013 |
Pandora's Promise | Robert Stone | Robert Stone Productions, Vulcan Productions | 2013 |
Democracy Now! (TV Series) | Democracy Now | 2011 | |
The University of Nuclear Bombs | Mohamed Elsawi, Joshua James | 2010 | |
Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space | Denis Delestrac | Coptor Productions Inc., Lowik Media | 2009 |
Difference of Opinion (TV Series) | Australian Broadcasting Corporation | 2007 | |
Poison Dust | Sue Harris | 2005 | |
Fatal Fallout: The Bush Legacy | Gary Null | Gary Null Moving Pictures | 2004 |
Helen's War: Portrait of a Dissident | Anna Broinowski | 2004 | |
American Experience (TV documentary) | WGBH | 1998 | |
In Our Hands | Robert Richter, Stanley Warnow | 1984 | |
If You Love This Planet (short) | Terri Nash | National Film Board of Canada | 1982 |
Eight Minutes to Midnight: A Portrait of Dr. Helen Caldicott | Mary Benjamin | 1981 | |
We are the Guinea Pigs | Joan Harvey | 1980 |
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) is a non-partisan federation of national medical groups in 63 countries, representing doctors, medical students, other health workers, and concerned people who share the goal of creating a more peaceful and secure world free from the threat of nuclear annihilation. The organization's headquarters is in Malden, Massachusetts. IPPNW was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.
The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, or international level. Major anti-nuclear groups include Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Peace Action, Seneca Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service. The initial objective of the movement was nuclear disarmament, though since the late 1960s opposition has included the use of nuclear power. Many anti-nuclear groups oppose both nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The formation of green parties in the 1970s and 1980s was often a direct result of anti-nuclear politics.
The Peace Organisation of Australia was a non-profit and non-religious organisation based in Melbourne, Australia which was active from 2005 to 2009. Its stated objective was the promotion of world peace through education. The organisation was established in May 2005 by a group of students from the University of Melbourne, and its last president was Dr. Aron Paul.
Dr. Randall Caroline Forsberg led a lifetime of research and advocacy on ways to reduce the risk of war, minimize the burden of military spending, and promote democratic institutions. Her career started at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in 1968. In 1974 she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to found the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies (IDDS) as well as to launch the national Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign. Randall Forsberg was accompanied by an important colleague by the name of Helen Caldicott while she was leading the Nuclear freeze movement in both Manhattan and Central Park. Both women were met with many challenges in their efforts to lead the Nuclear Freeze Movement. These challenges included gender discrimination and discreditation as influential leaders by the media. Forsberg's strong leadership in the nuclear freeze movement is thought to be very influential in the writing of foreign policy during the Reagan administration and is even credited with catalyzing the negotiation of the INF treaty between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.
If You Love This Planet is a 1982 Canadian documentary short film directed by Terre Nash, produced by Studio D and distributed by the National Film Board of Canada.
The anti-nuclear movement in the United States consists of more than 80 anti-nuclear groups that oppose nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and/or uranium mining. These have included the Abalone Alliance, Clamshell Alliance, Committee for Nuclear Responsibility, Nevada Desert Experience, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Plowshares Movement, United Steelworkers of America (USWA) District 31, Women Strike for Peace, Nukewatch, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Some fringe aspects of the anti-nuclear movement have delayed construction or halted commitments to build some new nuclear plants, and have pressured the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to enforce and strengthen the safety regulations for nuclear power plants. Most groups in the movement focus on nuclear weapons.
Women's Action for New Directions or WAND is a volunteer-run progressive non-profit organization in the United States with an objective of "building women's political power to advocate for peace and security".
Nuclear weapons testing, uranium mining and export, and nuclear power have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia has a long history. Its origins date back to the 1972–1973 debate over French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the 1976–1977 debate about uranium mining in Australia.
Anti-nuclear organizations may oppose uranium mining, nuclear power, and/or nuclear weapons. Anti-nuclear groups have undertaken public protests and acts of civil disobedience which have included occupations of nuclear plant sites. Some of the most influential groups in the anti-nuclear movement have had members who were elite scientists, including several Nobel Laureates and many nuclear physicists.
The anti-nuclear movement in the United Kingdom consists of groups who oppose nuclear technologies such as nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Many different groups and individuals have been involved in anti-nuclear demonstrations and protests over the years.
Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is a physician-led organization in the US working to protect the public from the threats of nuclear proliferation, climate change, and environmental toxins. It produces and disseminates publications, provides specialized training, offers written and oral testimony to congress, conducts media interviews, and delivers professional and public education. PSR's members and e-activists, state and local chapters, student chapters, and national staff form a nationwide network that target what they consider threats to global survival, specifically nuclear warfare, nuclear proliferation, global warming, and toxic degradation of the environment.
Rosalie Bertell was an American scientist, author, environmental activist, epidemiologist, and Catholic nun. Bertell was a sister of the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, best known for her work in the field of ionizing radiation. A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, she worked in environmental health since 1970.
Eight Minutes to Midnight: A Portrait of Dr. Helen Caldicott is a 1981 American documentary film about anti-nuclear weapons activist Helen Caldicott, directed by Mary Benjamin. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Pandora's Promise is a 2013 documentary film about the nuclear power debate, directed by Robert Stone. Its central argument is that nuclear power, which still faces historical opposition from environmentalists, is a relatively safe and clean energy source that can help mitigate the serious problem of anthropogenic global warming.
Atomic Mom is a 2010 documentary film written and directed by M.T. Silvia about the complex experiences of two women struggling with the emotional repercussions of their connections to the nuclear bombings on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II in August 1945.
The Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission is a Royal Commission into South Australia's future role in the nuclear fuel cycle. It commenced on 19 March 2015 and delivered its final report to the Government of South Australia on 6 May 2016. The Commissioner was former Governor of South Australia, Kevin Scarce, a retired Royal Australian Navy Rear-Admiral and chancellor of the University of Adelaide. The Commission concluded that nuclear power was unlikely to be economically feasible in Australia for the foreseeable future. However, it identified an economic opportunity in the establishment of a deep geological storage facility and the receipt of spent nuclear fuel from prospective international clients.
Ian Fairlie is a U.K. based Canadian consultant on radiation in the environment and former member of the three person secretariat to Britain’s Committee Examining the Radiation Risks of Internal Emitters (CERRIE). He is a radiation biologist who has focused on the radiological hazards of nuclear fuel and he has studied radioactive releases at nuclear facilities since before the Chernobyl accident in 1986.
Anna Broinowski is a Walkley Award-winning documentary filmmaker and author.
Catherine Frances Dewes is a New Zealand activist for disarmament and former advisor on peace matters to two United Nations Secretaries-General. She was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2001 New Year Honours, for services to the peace movement.
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