Having had the opportunity today to join the audience hearing Vice President Joe Biden’s speech outlining the Administration’s approach to managing the U.S. nuclear arsenal, strengthening nonproliferation and reducing nuclear risks, I am struck again by their strong rhetorical commitment to “take concrete steps toward a world without nuclear weapons”. Read more »
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PSR testified before the EPA on ground-level ozone, or smog, supporting new rules for more stringent ozone standards -- and urging the EPA to get more stringent yet. Read more »
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The recent snowstorms that pummeled the Mid-Atlantic are, in fact, evidence of global warming. Read more »
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Coal ash, loaded with arsenic, lead, selenium, mercury, and other toxics, is one of the biggest toxics streams in the U.S. – yet is not regulated by the federal government. It is a grave threat to health. Read more »

In his first State of the Union address, President Barack Obama eloquently described the threat of nuclear weapons as the “greatest danger to the American people.” Invoking the arms control legacy of President John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, the President also repeated his earlier promise to pursue a strategy that reverses the spread of nuclear weapons and seeks a world without them. Read more »

Mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining uses high-powered explosives to blow the tops off of mountains. The debris is then bulldozered into adjacent valleys and streams. The health hazards and environmental destruction this creates is so great, scientists have called for a moratorium on MTR permits. Read more »
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In November 2009, SPSR national student representatives attended the Nobel Peace Laureates Summit in Berlin as part of an IPPNW student delegation. Read more »

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the Clock back 1 minute signaling an increased environment of international cooperation on nuclear disarmament but with considerable hurdles left before real action is taken. Read more »

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules to strengthen the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for two primary pollutants under the Clean Air Act: sulfur dioxide and ozone pollution (smog). Read more »

President Obama's Nobel address was not the speech that many of us had hoped for. He did state again his commitment to nuclear disarmament but he certainly did not use the address to build the case for eliminating nuclear weapons nor to lay out a plan for achieving this aim. Read more »
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At tonight's Nobel Dinner the vice chair of the Nobel Committee delivered a great speech in which she stressed the theme of this year's Nobel Prize as a "Call to Action". She cited a passage in Obama's first book where he describes a bus ride during an early community organizing effort and the ongoing impact it had sustaining his commitment to the work he was doing in Chicago. She expressed the wish that the ride to Oslo would have the same effect on him now, and spoke plainly of the enormous hopes the world invests in him and of the "audacity" of the Nobel Committee in challenging him further to meet those hopes. Read more »
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I, like many people, spent the early part of this morning in bed watching President Obama receive the Nobel Peace Prize. I was struck by the contrasts and conflicting aspects of his speech. I was only a medical student working for IPPNW when I attended the Nobel ceremonies in 1985. Read more »
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This evening a number of organizations sponsored a forum "How to Build Momentum towards a Nuclear Weapons Free World" . Alyn Ware, the coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, and I were the speakers. Read more »

CNN has published a piece I wrote urging President Obama to use the Nobel Address to reaffirm his commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons and to spell out why it is in America's national security interest to secure a nuclear weapons convention. Read more »

The Nobel Committee has invited me to attend the award ceremony and dinner in Oslo this week to represent the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and our US affiliate Physicians for Social Responsibility. This year marks the 24th anniversary of our receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for the work we did alerting the world to the medical consequences of nuclear war. Read more »

Tova's speech from the International Youth Dialogue for Nuclear Disarmament Read more »

A review of day 2 of the International Youth Dialogue for Nuclear Disarmament. Read more »

A review of day 1 of PNA's (Project for Nuclear Awareness) International Youth Dialogue for Nuclear Disarmament. Read more »

Back in June, PSR joined an appeal from a broad and unprecedented coalition of nuclear medical and nonproliferation groups urging Congress to fund domestic production of medical isotopes without bomb-grade uranium, to ensure supply of the isotopes while reducing risks of nuclear terrorism. Read more »

Take a break from carving that pumpkin and make sure you don’t miss the International Youth Dialogue for Nuclear Disarmament on October 26th and 27th. The Dialogue will link youth, professionals and experts from the peace, foreign policy, health and environmental communities via live video conference. Venues include Philadelphia, Mexico City, Moscow and Santa Barbara. The core aim of the Dialogue is to foster youth leadership, idea-sharing, and cross cultural understanding through citizen diplomacy and to build a comprehensive campaign for nuclear disarmament on this basis of cooperation. Read more »