Robert Dodge

Seventy-four years ago today the United States dropped the first atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. This nuclear weapon resulted in the deaths of an estimated 140,000 individuals. Three days later on August 9, a similar attack was carried out on the city of Nagasaki, Japan killing an additional 80,000 people. These events … Continue reading “Hiroshima and the New Arms Race – No Winners”

A national collaborative grassroots coalition to abolish nuclear weapons is rapidly emerging in this country. The effort called "Back from the Brink: A Call to Prevent Nuclear War" started last fall after the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted by 122 nations with the U.S. and other nuclear nations boycotting. The … Continue reading “Preventing Nuclear War: A National Campaign Emerges”

This week marks 73 years since the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th , ultimately resulting in the deaths of more than 200,000 people. With the dawn of the nuclear age, the term “hibakusha” formally entered our lexicon. Atomic bomb survivors are referred to in Japanese as hibakusha, which … Continue reading “Hibakusha and Hope in the Nuclear Age”

While elected officials of our increasingly dysfunctional democracy debated "memogate," the world became more dangerous as Trump’s Nuclear Posture Review was officially released on Friday, February 2. Ignoring scientific studies of the past decade and growing global sentiment by the world’s non-nuclear states to abolish nuclear weapons, with this announcement the new arms race begins and the … Continue reading “Poor Posture: Trump’s Nuclear Doctrine Resumes Cold War”

Friday’s award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) draws attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and the global movement to abolish these weapons as the only reliable way to guarantee that they will never be used again. The award … Continue reading “ICAN’s Nobel Peace Prize Is Humanity’s Rx for Survival”

Nuclear weapons have threatened humanity for 72 years, ultimately becoming the greatest eminent threat to our survival. This past Friday, July 7, nuclear weapons at long last joined the ranks of other weapons of mass destruction including biologic and chemical weapons, landmines and cluster munitions in being banned and declared illegal under international treaty law. … Continue reading “A Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty – Rx for Survival”

Nuclear weapons present the greatest public health and existential threat to our survival every moment of every day. Yet the United States and world nuclear nations stand in breach of the 1968 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty which commits these nations to work in good faith to end the arms race and to achieve nuclear disarmament. Forty … Continue reading “Nuclear Weapons – The Time for Abolition is Now”