Just in case some are not aware of the link to our Huffington Post blog entries on the sidebar of this blog, you can access NAPF’s own Steven Crandell’s blogs on HuffPost via this link!

So check the blogs out – and if you haven’t done so already – sign the Appeal here.

The seventh annual Think Outside the Bomb Conference will be held in Boston from August 14-17! The Conference is great opportunity for youth to gather and discuss issues related to nuclear abolition. This year’s conference will be held on the campus of MIT and is expected to include speakers like Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Zia Mian from Princeton University, Joe Gerson, author of Empire and the Bomb, Subrata Ghoshroy, from MIT, and Jackie Cabasso of the Western States Legal Foundation.

You can register for the Conference here!

As the general election gets underway and the price of gas has almost hit $5 per gallon, it is becoming increasingly clear that energy policy will be one of the most critical issues that the next U.S. President will have to address. In fact, both candidates have discussed alternative energy policies recently, and both candidates have discussed nuclear energy as a viable alternative. However, the ways in which both candidates approach nuclear energy differs. While Senator McCain has come out and called for the construction of at least 45 more nuclear power plants by the year 2030, Senator Obama has been more vague, but insisting nonetheless that nuclear energy remain a viable alternative when faced with such high oil costs.

You can read more about nuclear energy and the inherent proliferation risks that come with nuclear power plants and nuclear material in Steven Crandell’s Huffington Post blog here. While it would appear that both candidates consider nuclear energy as viable alternative energy solutions, the risk of proliferation stands as an obstacle in the way of achieving a nuclear weapons-free world. The world will never truly be peaceful with nuclear weapons. Furthermore, a peaceful world includes a clean environment. Nuclear power produces far too much waste – for which there is currently no adequate storage – and endangers the environment in which we live. In addition, reprocessing solutions proposed under the U.S. plan for a Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) will significantly increase proliferation risks.

In order to make the world more safe and clean, it is necessary to confront the fact that nuclear energy is not a sustainable solution. It is also necessary to appeal to the policymakers in Washington to make a safe and clean world a reality. Although NAPF’s Appeal to the Next President of the United States addresses nuclear weapons proliferation, the Appeal will influence policymakers by focusing their attention on nuclear issues and concerns about the proliferation of nuclear materials.

Sign the Appeal today!

What do the Dalai Lama and nuclear weapons have in common?

If that seems like an odd question – it should! The Dalai Lama, in accepting the Distinguished Peace Leader award from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in 1991, spoke on the dangers of nuclear weapons and prospects for a world free of nuclear weapons leading to peace. As an advocate for non-violence and peaceful resolutions to conflict, the Dalai Lama stands for everything that nuclear weapons do not; the Dalai Lama stands for compassion, dialogue and peace.

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation endeavors to make the world safer and we need your help to achieve this goal of a nuclear weapons-free world! We see the upcoming election as key in making the world safer for generations to come. The next President of the United States has the capability to abolish nuclear weapons altogether. We are sending an Appeal to the Next President of the United States, and we are trying to gather a million signatures before it is sent to him on January 22, 2009.

So do your part to make the world safer and sign the Appeal today!

To read more about the Dalai Lama’s perspective on nuclear weapons, read Steven Crandell’s new Huffington Post blog.

Monday, June 16 is the last day to submit a video to NAPF’s Swackhamer Disarmament Video Contest. The contest seeks short (3 minutes maximum) videos on why US leadership is essential to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.

We’re offering cash prizes of $1,000 (first prize); $750 (second prize); and $250 (third prize). Winning videos will be featured on our website and possibly in future promotional campaigns! See our contest page for full details.

You don’t have to be a video whiz or a nuclear weapons expert to enter this contest. This is an issue that affects everyone. Your video can be you talking to the camera, or it can be a fancy animated sequence; what matters is that you speak from the heart and believe in your message.

For some ideas on specific steps the US can take to show leadership on this issue, check out our Appeal to the next President (and sign it online, if you haven’t already). You can see the videos that others have submitted already on our YouTube contest page.

The contest closes on Monday, June 16 at 5:00 pm PST.

Take a little time this weekend to make a video that matters. You’ll be in the running for some great prizes, and, more importantly, playing an important role in getting the next President of the US to provide leadership for a nuclear weapons-free world.

I have four reasons for working for a world free of nuclear weapons. They’re names are Isaac, Luke, Josette and Nathaniel. My four children. For me, life’s a benevolent circle. The goal is to keep the circle going with grace and beauty so that the new people on the planet can enjoy themselves. Nuclear weapons are the ultimate environmental threat. Nuclear war is climate change on steroids. But instead of global warming, you face nuclear winter.The truth is, a nuclear war can make all the years of good green work we do to bring the Earth into balance, redundant in seconds.But don’t get the wrong idea. I’m positive about our future. Challenges like climate change and nuclear weapons can bring us together as nothing else has. Just think, what would happen if the new US President got his — or her– act together and started working with other countries for a nuclear weapons-free world? It could create a template for solving other difficult, global problems like climate change, hunger, lack of education, lack of clean water, lack of health care.That’s why the nonprofit I work for — The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation — launched its Appeal to the Next President of the United States.We’re gathering the support of one million people to ask the new President to work to get rid of nuclear weapons. We believe it is essentail that this issue gets a higher profile. At stake, is nothing but the survival of the planet. Join the Dalai Lama and sign-on. www.wagingpeace.org.

–Steven Crandell

Welcome to the official blog of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF). With locations in Santa Barbara, CA and Washington, D.C., NAPF’s principal mission is to advance initiatives to eliminate the nuclear weapons threat to all life, to foster the global rule of law, and to build an enduring legacy of peace through education and advocacy.

Apart from our official mission statement, our vision is a world at peace, free of the threat of war and free of weapons of mass destruction.

To learn more about NAPF, visit http://www.wagingpeace.org

During the campaign, NAPF has collected quotes from the presidential candidates on nuclear weapons and nuclear policy. Below are some quotes from the presumed Democratic and Republican Candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain.

Democratic Candidate Barack Obama’s Quotes:

On nuclear weapons and Iran:

“The world must work to stop Iran’s uranium enrichment program and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. It is far too dangerous to have nuclear weapons in the hands of a radical theocracy. And while we should take no option, including military action, off the table, sustained and aggressive diplomacy combined with tough sanctions should be our primary means to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons.”

On Disarmament:

“Finally, if we want the world to deemphasize the role of nuclear weapons, the United States and Russia must lead by example. President Bush once said, The United States should remove as many weapons as possible from high-alert, hair-trigger status – another unnecessary vestige of Cold War confrontation. Six years later, President Bush has not acted on this promise. I will. We cannot and should not accept the threat of accidental or unauthorized nuclear launch. We can maintain a strong nuclear deterrent to protect our security without rushing to produce a new generation of warheads.”

“Toward a Nuclear Free World: Obama will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons, and pursue it. Obama will always maintain a strong deterrent as long as nuclear weapons exist. But he will take several steps down the long road toward eliminating nuclear weapons. He will stop the development of new nuclear weapons; work with Russia to take U.S. and Russian ballistic missiles off hair trigger alert; seek dramatic reductions in U.S. and Russian stockpiles of nuclear weapons and material; and set a goal to expand the U.S.-Russian ban on intermediate- range missiles so that the agreement is global.”

“As President, I will set and seek the goal of a world with no nuclear weapons. We will always maintain a strong deterrent as long as nuclear weapons exist. But we will move forward down the long road toward eliminating nuclear weapons by securing all loose nuclear materials within four years; stopping the development of new nuclear weapons; working with Russia to take U.S. and Russian ballistic missiles off hair trigger alert; seeking dramatic reductions in U.S. and Russian stockpiles of nuclear weapons and material; and setting a goal to expand the U.S.-Russian ban on intermediate-range missiles so that the agreement is global.”

On new nuclear weapons/reliable replacement warhead (RRW):

“Before we consider developing new nuclear weapons we need to consider what the role of these weapons should be in our national security policy. As I said in my speech before the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, I believe the United States should lead the international effort to deemphasize the role of nuclear weapons around the world. I also believe that our policy towards the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) affects this leadership position. We can maintain a strong nuclear deterrent to protect our security without rushing to produce a new generation of warheads. I do not support a premature decision to produce the RRW.”

On the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT):

“As president, I will make it my priority to build bipartisan consensus behind ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. In the meantime, the least we can do is fully pay our contribution to the CTBTO.”

Republican Candidate John McCain’s Quotes:

On the use of nuclear weapons:

“It’s naive to say that we will never use nuclear weapons.”

“Our highest priority must be to reduce the danger that nuclear weapons will ever be used. Such weapons, while still important to deter an attack with weapons of mass destruction against us and our allies, represent the most abhorrent and indiscriminate form of warfare known to man. We do, quite literally, possess the means to destroy all of mankind. We must seek to do all we can to ensure that nuclear weapons will never again be used.”

On Disarmament:

“The nuclear nonproliferation regime is broken for one clear reason: the mistaken assumption behind the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) that nuclear technology can spread without nuclear weapons eventually following.”

“We should work to reduce nuclear arsenals all around the world, starting with our own. Forty years ago, the five declared nuclear powers came together in support of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and pledged to end the arms race and move toward nuclear disarmament. The time has come to renew that commitment. We do not need all the weapons currently in our arsenal. The United States should lead a global effort at nuclear disarmament consistent with our vital interests and the cause of peace.”

“A quarter of a century ago, President Ronald Reagan declared, “our dream is to see the day when nuclear weapons will be banished from the face of the Earth.” That is my dream, too. It is a distant and difficult goal. And we must proceed toward it prudently and pragmatically, and with a focused concern for our security and the security of allies who depend on us. But the Cold War ended almost twenty years ago, and the time has come to take further measures to reduce dramatically the number of nuclear weapons in the world’s arsenals. It is time for the United States to show the kind of leadership the world expects from us, in the tradition of American presidents who worked to reduce the nuclear threat to mankind. [...] I believe we should reduce our nuclear forces to the lowest level we judge necessary, and we should be prepared to enter into a new arms control agreement with Russia reflecting the nuclear reductions I will seek.”

On new nuclear weapons and the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW):

“Iwould only support the development of any new type of nuclear weapon that is absolutely essential for the viability of our deterrent, that results in making possible further decreases in the size of our nuclear arsenal, and furthers our global nuclear security goals. I would cancel all further work on the so-called Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, a weapon that does not make strategic or political sense.”

On missile defense and missile shields in Eastern Europe:

“The first thing I would do is make sure that we have a missile defense system in place in Czechoslovakia (sic) and Poland, and I don’t care what his (Putin’s) objections are to it.”

On the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT):

“I believe we must also address nuclear testing. As president I will pledge to continue America’s current moratorium on testing, but also begin a dialogue with our allies, and with the U.S. Senate, to identify ways we can move forward to limit testing in a verifiable manner that does not undermine the security or viability of our nuclear deterrent. This would include taking another look at the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to see what can be done to overcome the shortcomings that prevented it from entering into force. I opposed that treaty in 1999, but said at the time I would keep an open mind about future developments.”

The Dalai Lama was awarded NAPF’s annual Distinguished Peace Leadership Award in 1991. During his acceptance speech, he spoke on the dangers and wastefulness of nuclear weapons, the need to live peacefully together, and practice non-violence. Seventeen years later, his speech is even more relevant and serves as a motivator for sending the Appeal to the next President when he or she enters office in January 2009.

Below are the videos: