Category: Climate / Environment

Peace & Justice History for 6/20

June 20, 1960
Nobel Prize-winner in Chemistry Linus Pauling [for study of the nature of the chemical bond and the determination of the structure of molecules and crystals] defied the U.S. Congress by refusing to name circulators of petitions calling for the total halt of nuclear weapons testing. Pauling later won a second Nobel, a Peace Prize, for his work championing nuclear disarmament.

Linus Pauling
Interview with Linus Pauling on the peace movement, 1983
June 20, 1965
Hundreds protested following a military coup in Algiers, the capital of Algeria. The military, under chief of the armed forces Colonel Houari Boumedienne and his National Revolutionary Council, had deposed President Ahmed Ben Bella, the first president of an independent Algeria (following the withdrawal of French colonial control).
On the news at the time 
June 20, 1967
Boxer Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston, Texas, of violating the Selective Service law by refusing induction into the U.S. Army (during the Vietnam War). The World Heavyweight Champion had claimed conscientious objector status on the basis that he was a Muslim minister. The conviction, for which Ali was sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, was later overturned by the Supreme Court.

“I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong.”
June 20, 1982
2500 were arrested during a two-day blockade of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, about 50 miles east of San Francisco, the principal American nuclear weapons research facility, operated by the University of California.
June 20, 1995
Shell Oil gave in to international pressure and abandoned its plans to dispose of the Brent Spar oil-drilling platform and its contents into the North Atlantic. The environmental group Greenpeace spearheaded the effort to prevent Shell from sinking the rig, its members boarding and occupying it as a tactic to stop the deep sea disposal, and to call attention to the issue peacefully.
Shell’s plan would have dumped toxic and radioactive sludge into the ocean just west of the British Isles. A month later, at the Oslo and Paris Commission (OSPARCOM) meeting, 11 out of 13 countries agreed to a moratorium on the “dumping” of offshore installations, pending agreement on an outright ban.
Greenpeace climbers on Brent Spar platform

Shell ships use water cannons against Greenpeace activists on board the rig.
Read more about Greenpeace and Brent Spar
June 20, 2002
The U.S. Supreme Court declared executing mentally retarded individuals convicted of capital crimes to be unconstitutionally cruel [Atkins v. Virginia]. Besides being in line with a consensus among state legislatures, the court found that “Their deficiencies [the mentally retarded] do not warrant an exemption from criminal sanctions, but diminish their personal culpability.”

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjune.htm#june20

Starry, Starry Night … & Happy Birthday, APOD!

APOD is 30 Years Old Today
Image Credit: Pixelization of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night by Dario Giannobile

Explanation: APOD is 30 years old today. In celebration, today’s picture uses past APODs as tiles arranged to create a single pixelated image that might remind you of one of the most well-known and evocative depictions of planet Earth’s night sky. In fact, this Starry Night consists of 1,836 individual images contributed to APOD over the last 5 years in a mosaic of 32,232 tiles. Today, APOD would like to offer a sincere thank you to our contributors, volunteers, and readers. Over the last 30 years your continuing efforts have allowed us to enjoy, inspire, and share a discovery of the cosmos.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Good News Sunday-

Scientists develop plastic that dissolves in seawater

Scientists in Japan have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater.

Experts say the new material breaks down quickly in around two to three hours, depending on its thickness and size.

Many existing biodegradable plastics aren’t able to fully dissolve, leaving behind harmful microplastics that can pollute the ocean and harm wildlife.

But it’s hoped that the new non-toxic material could offer a future solution as it disappears completely.

The new plastic was co-developed by the University of Tokyo in Japan and the country’s RIKEN Centre for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS).

Researchers say it is made by combining two small molecules which form a strong bond that allows the new material to stay tough and flexible.

While scientists have long experimented with biodegradable plastics, the team say their invention breaks down much more quickly and leaves no trace.

When placed in a mixture which had the same amount of salt as seawater, they found the new plastic dissolved “quickly in about two to three hours, depending on its thickness and size.”

And it’s not just in water where the new plastic can dissolve.

Takuzo Aida, lead researcher at CEMS, explained: “Similarly, when tested in soil..a piece of plastic about 5 centimetres in size, it completely disappears after a little over 200 hours.”

Plastic pollution is a big global problem, with experts at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) saying the amount of waste is set to triple in the next 15 years.

Recent studies have shown the damage microplastics cause as they pollute the environment and create health problems for animals, because they can be easily eaten.

The new plastic is still in the early phase of development but Mr Aida said their research has attracted a lot of interest, including from those in the packaging sector.

He added: “In Japan, almost all packaging is made of plastic, and if we can really manage to reduce that, we can expect less environmental damage.”

Currently, less than 9% of global plastic waste is successfully recycled. (snip)

“Small Southern Specialty”

Black-crested Titmouse

The Port Huron Statement & More in Peace & Justice History for 6/11

June 11, 1962

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) held its founding convention in Michigan and issued The Port Huron Statement, laying out its principles and program.
“In social change or interchange, we find violence to be abhorrent because it requires generally the transformation of the target, be it a human being or a community of people, into a depersonalized object of hate. It is imperative that the means of violence be abolished and the institutions—local, national, international—that encourage non-violence as a condition of conflict be developed.”
Complete text of the Port Huron Statement  (it’s a .pdf, in case you’re on a phone)
Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History: Paul Buhle, Editor 
June 11, 1963
Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk from the Linh-Mu Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam, burned himself to death (self-immolation) in front of the U.S. embassy in downtown Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh City) to protest the the South Vietnamese regime the U.S. supported, and the war the Americans were waging.

A painting of the scene on the street as Thich Quang Duc self-immolates in protest of the government and war in Vietnam
June 11, 1963

Vivian Malone (later Jones) preparing to enroll at Alabama with Deputy Attorney Gen, Nicholas Katzenbach (L) at her side.
Alabama Governor George C. Wallace stood in the doorway of the University of Alabama in order to prevent the admission of two negro students in a failed attempt to maintain segregation in educational opportunities.
He was forced to step aside later in the day when Vivian Malone and James Hood were registered as students.
June 11, 1968
Daniel Cohn-Bendit, known as Danny the Red, arrived in Britain, stirring up fears of campus unrest. The 23-year-old Paris law student had been given permission to remain in the U.K. just 24 hours, but immediately threatened to defy the authorities and out-stay his official welcome [his visit was later legally extended to 14 days]. Cohn-Bendit, a German citizen, had been expelled from France in May for being an organizer of the French student and worker demonstrations which almost brought that country to a standstill the previous month.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit and a Paris policeman in 1968.
“I don’t know how long I will stay. I think it’s a free country” -Daniel Cohn-Bendit
He currently sits as a Green Party deputy in the European Parliament.
The news at the time 
Daniel Cohn-Bendit today 
June 11, 1970
Representative Martha Griffiths (D-Michigan) filed a discharge petition signed by a majority of all members of the U.S. House of Representatives, a seldom used parliamentary move, to bring the Equal Rights amendment to the House floor for consideration.
She saw this as the only way to get the constitutional amendment out of the Judiciary Committee where it had been held by its chairman, Emmanuel Cellar (D-New York), who had refused to even hold hearings on the matter. Representative Griffiths had introduced the amendment every year since 1948.

Representative Martha Griffiths from Detroit’s west side
June 11, 1988
100,000 marched from United Nations headquarters in New York City to Central Park during the 3rd U.N. Special Session on Disarmament. Though there had been progress in recent years on disarmament, the U.N. meeting yielded nothing but stalemate.
Read more 
June 11, 2010
Scientists studying the scale of the then-ongoing BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico doubled the previous estimate of the scale of the flow of oil into the Gulf. Initially, BP and the government had said that no more than 1000 barrels (42 U.S. gallons per barrel) per day were leaking, later raised to 5000.
The fine for oil spills was $4300 per barrel.

The new estimate was between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels per day.
If the spill had been stopped that day (the well was not capped until early August), it would have exceeded the Exxon Valdez spill by a factor of eight.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjune.htm#june11

“High-altitude Flycatcher”

Ash-breasted Tit-Tyrant

Peace & Justice History for 6/6

(https://www.peacebuttons.info/)

June 6, 1936

First issue of Peace News published in England.
PeaceNews home page 
(Peace News subscriptions are no longer available. See this blog entry. -A. There is still useful information on its home page, etc.)
June 6, 1949
George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, was published.
It described a world in which totalitarian government controls the behavior of all, including the way one thinks.

This was summed up in the government’s slogans: War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength.



George Orwell
More about George Orwell 
June 6, 1966
James H. Meredith, the first African American ever to attend the University of Mississippi, was shot by a sniper in the back and legs while on a lone “March Against Fear.”
 
He was walking the 220 miles from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, to encourage others to stand up for their rights and self-respect, and to register to vote. Law enforcement officers and reporters following him witnessed the attack, and the shooter was arrested.

Read more 
June 6, 1968

Comedian Dick Gregory began a hunger strike in the Olympia, Washington, jail after his arrest with others at a fish-in, an act of civil disobedience in support of the fishing rights of the Nisqually Indian Tribe.
See what happened after his arrest  
June 6, 1971
40 members of the American Indian Movement camped in the sacred Black Hills, or Paha Sapa, atop Mount Rushmore; 20 were arrested. They were demanding the U.S. honor the terms of the 1868 treaty with the Sioux Nation granting them the Black Hills territory.
Read more 
June 6, 1989
The FBI and the Department of Energy, tipped off by plant workers, raided the Rocky Flats nuclear production facility. They found numerous violations of federal anti-pollution laws including massive contamination of water and soil. Rockwell International, the operator of the facility, was fined $18.5 million.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjune.htm#june6

Peace & Justice History for 6/5

June 5, 1851
Uncle Tom’s Cabin or, Life Among the Lowly began to appear in serial form in the Washington National Era, an abolitionist weekly.
The novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a tear-jerking tale of the hardships of slavery, became a central reference point in the national debate over the issue.
 
Read more 
June 5, [since 1972]

World Environment Day was established by the U.N. General Assembly to commemorate the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in Sweden.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) was established as a result of the conference.
The 1972 Stockholm conference 
UNEP’s mission: To provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
Each year World Environment Day adopts a different theme.
June 5, 1989
Just a few days before the first fission reaction was to be allowed at New Hampshire’s Seabrook Station nuclear power plant, hundreds breached the security fence, leading to 627 arrests. They carried signs reading, “In Mourning for the Late, Great State of New Hampshire,” and “Remember Chernobyl.”
Led by the Clamshell Alliance, their concern was for the safety of local residents in the event of a nuclear accident, as well as environmental pollution and the unsolved problem of safe disposal of nuclear waste generated by the reactor. There were also concerns for increased electricity rates to cover the costs of the project. Repeated significant protests occurred as early as 1976 at the beginning of construction when sometimes more than a thousand would be arrested.
Ron Sher, a Seabrook spokesman, termed the demonstrators “very vocal but a small minority . . . They don’t represent the millions of people in New England that recognize that nuclear energy is a viable energy option.” The plant was projected to produce up to 1.15 gigawatts, enough for one million homes.
June 5, 1993
Thousands marched to protest neo-Nazi violence against foreigners, particularly ethnic Turks, living in Germany.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjune.htm#june5

Peace & Justice History for 6/4

June 4, 1939
During what became known as the “Voyage of the Damned,” the SS St. Louis, carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany to the U.S., was turned away from the Florida coast. The ship, also denied permission to dock in Cuba, eventually returned to Europe; many of the refugees later died in Nazi concentration camps.

The reality of what happened 
The movie based on the history 
June 4, 1972
Angela Y. Davis, a former philosophy professor at the University of California, outspoken black leader and self-proclaimed communist, was acquitted on charges of conspiracy, murder, and kidnapping by an all-white jury in San Jose, California.

More on Angela Davis
 
Angela Davis wearing a peace button from peacebuttons.info, speaking at The Grays Harbor Institute, Hoquiam, Washington April, 2007
  
June 4, 1987

New Zealand passed legislation declaring itself nuclear-free. In 1986, New Zealand had banned the entry of U.S. Navy ships from their ports in the belief that they were carrying nuclear weapons or were nuclear-powered. U.S. government protests of the policy led to breakup of the ANZUS (Australia-New Zealand-United States) defense alliance.The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act of 1987 (which ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) prohibits the:
•   manufacture, acquisition, possession, control of any nuclear explosive device
•   aiding, abetting or procuring any person to manufacture, acquire, possess, or have control over any nuclear explosive device
•   transport, stockpiling, storage, installation, or deployment of any nuclear explosive device.
June 4, 1989
Hundreds of civilians were shot dead by China’s People’s Liberation Army during a bloody military operation in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Students and workers had become part of a growing pro-democracy movement, gathering there continuously for weeks. The Chinese government still officially denies any deaths occurred; thousands who were arrested “disappeared” and remain unaccounted for.
“… deaths from the military assault on Tiananmen Square range from 180 to 500; thousands more have been injured . . . thousands of civilians stood their ground or swarmed around military vehicles. APCs [armored personnel carriers] were set on fire, and demonstrators besieged troops with rocks, bottles, and Molotov cocktails.”* 

*From a comprehensive overview prepared by the National Security Archive
based on formerly classified U.S. Government documents

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjune.htm#june4

“Golden Slippers”

Snowy Egret