Hamburg, March 28th 2011
We extend our deepest sympathies to the people of Japan who have
experienced a devastating earthquake and tsunami followed by severe damage to
the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. We commend the brave individuals
who are risking their lives to prevent the escape of massive amounts of radiation
from the damaged nuclear reactors and spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi.
The disaster in Japan has demonstrated once again the limits of human
capability to keep dangerous technologies free from accidents with catastrophic
results. Natural disasters combined with human error have proven a potent force for
undermining even the best laid plans. Reliance on human perfection reflects a hubris
that has led to other major failures of dangerous technologies in the past, and will do
so in the future. What has occurred as a result of the confluence of natural disaster
and human error in Japan could also be triggered purposefully by means of terrorism
or acts of war.
In addition to accidental or purposeful destruction, nuclear power plants pose
other threats to humanity and to the human future. The large amounts of radioactive
wastes that are created by nuclear power generation will remain highly toxic for many
times longer than human civilization has existed, and there is currently no long-term
solution to dealing with the threats these radioactive wastes pose to the environment
and human health. Further, nuclear power plants, with their large societal subsidies,
have diverted financial and human resources from the development of safe and
reliable forms of renewable energy.
Nuclear power programs use and create fissile materials that can be used to
make nuclear weapons, and thus provide a proven pathway to nuclear weapons
proliferation. Several countries have already used civilian nuclear programs to
provide the fissile materials to make nuclear weapons. Other countries, particularly
those with plutonium reprocessing and uranium enrichment facilities, could easily
follow suit if they decided to do so. The spread of nuclear power plants will not only
make the world more dangerous, but will make more difficult, if not impossible, the
goal of a nuclear weapons-free world.
Nuclear power is neither the answer to modern energy problems nor a
panacea for climate change challenges. There is no solution of problems by creating
more problems. Nuclear power doesn’t add up economically, environmentally or
socially. Of all the energy options, nuclear is the most capital intensive to establish,
decommissioning is prohibitively expensive and the financial burden continues long
after the plant is closed.
The tragedy in Japan has raised global awareness of the extreme dangers
that can result from nuclear power generation. Grave as these dangers are,
however, they are not as great as those arising from the possession, threat and use
of nuclear weapons – weapons that have the capacity to destroy civilization and end
most life on the planet.
The conclusion we draw from the nuclear power plant accident in Japan is that
the human community, acting for itself and as trustees for future generations, must
exercise a far higher level of care globally in dealing with technologies capable of
causing mass annihilation, and should phase out, abolish and replace such
technologies with alternatives that do not threaten present and future generations.
This applies to nuclear weapons as well as to nuclear power reactors.
Signatories:
Dr. h.c. Hafsat Abiola-Costello, Member of the World Future Council, Founder of
the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) and China Africa Bridge
Dr. Martín Almada, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2002, Founder of the
Fundación Celestina Perez de Almada
Marianne Andersson, Member of the Board and the Jury of the Right Livelihood
Award Foundation, former Member of the Swedish Parliament
Dr. h.c. Maude Barlow, Member of the World Future Council and Right Livelihood
Award Laureate 2005, First Senior Advisor to the UN on water issues and
Chairperson of The Council of Canadians
Dipal Chandra Barua, Member of the World Future Council and, Co-founder of the
Grameen Bank, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2007, Former Managing Director of
the Grameen Shakti, Founder and Chairman of the Bright Green Energy Foundation
Nnimmo Bassey, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2010, Executive Director of
Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria and Chair of Friends of the Earth International
Dr. Tony Clarke, Right Livelihood Laureate 2005, Founder and Director of the
Polaris Institute
Prof. Dr. Marie-Claire Cordonnier Segger, Member of the World Future Council
and Director of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL),
Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL) of Cambridge
University and Chief of the Environment and Sustainable Development Law Program
of the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO)
Dr. h.c. Riane Eisler, Member of the World Future Council and President of the
Centre for Partnership Studies
Dr. Scilla Elworthy, Member of the World Future Council, Founder of the Oxford
Research Group and Peace Direct, Director of Programmes for the World Peace
Partnership
Prof. Dr. h.c. Anwar Fazal, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1982, Director of the
Right Livelihood College
Dr. h.c. Irene Fernandez, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2005, Director of
Tenaganita, Malaysia
Prof. Dr. Martin A. Green, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2002, Executive
Research Director of the ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence, School of
Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of New South Wales,
Australia
Monika Griefahn, Co-Chair and Jury Member of the Right Livelihood Award,
Member of the Board of Advisors of the World Future Council, Co-Founder of
Greenpeace Germany, former Member of the German Parliament and former
Minister of Environmental Affairs in Lower Saxony
Cyd Ho, Member of the World Future Council and Member of Hong Kong’s
Legislative Council
SM Mohamed Idris, Founder and President of Sahabat Alam Malaysia,
Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1988, Founder and President of the Consumers’
Association of Penang
Dr. Ashok Khosla, Member of the World Future Council, President of the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Chairman of the Centre for
Development Alternatives and Co-President of the Club of Rome
Dr. h.c. Dom Erwin Kräutler, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2010, Bishop
of Xingu, President of the Indigenous Missionary Council of the Catholic
Church in Brazil
Dr. David Krieger, Member of the World Future Council and Co-Founder and
President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Dr. med. Katarina Kruhonja, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1998, Founder
and Director of the Centre for Peace, Non-violence and Human Rights
Prof. Dr. Alexander Likhotal, Member of the World Future Council and President of
Green Cross International
Dr. Rama Mani, Member of the World Future Council, Senior Research Associate at
the Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford, and Director of the Global
Project Responsibility to Protect: Southern Cultural Perspectives
Prof. Dr. h.c. Manfred Max-Neef, Member of the World Future Council and Right
Livelihood Award Laureate 1983, Director of the Economics Institute, Universidad
Austral de Chile
Ledum Mitee, President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, Right
Livelihood Award Laureate 1994
Prof. Dr. Raúl A. Montenegro, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2004, Professor at
the National University of Cordoba, Argentina, and President of the Environment
Defense Foundation FUNAM
Dr. h.c. Frances Moore Lappé, Member of the World Future Council, Right
Livelihood Award Laureate 1987 and Founder of the Small Planet Institute
Helena Norberg-Hodge, Director of the International Society for Ecology and
Culture and Initiator of Ladakh Ecological Development Group, Right Livelihood
Award Laureate 1986
Dr. Katiana Orluc, Member of the World Future Council, Historian, Middle East
expert and Visiting Professor at Harvard University
Juan Pablo Orrego, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1998, President of the Grupo
de Acción por el Biobío (GABB)
Nicanor Perlas, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2003 , Co-Founder and President
of the Center for Alternative Development Initiatives
Dr. Vithal Rajan, Member of the World Future Council and of the Jury of the Right
Livelihood Award, Vice-President of Oxfam India and Chairman of the Confederation
of Voluntary Associations
Dr. h.c. Fernando Rendón, Gabriel Jaime Franco and Gloria Chvatal of The
International Poetry Festival of Medellin, Right Livelihood Award 2006
Prof. Dr. h.c. Vandana Shiva, Member of the World Future Council and Right
Livelihood Award Laureate 1993, Founder of the Research Foundation for Science,
Technology and Ecology and the India based NAVDANYA network
Prof. Dr. Hannumappa R. Sudarshan, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1994,
Karuna Trust & Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK)
Pauline Tangiora, Member of the World Future Council and Maori elder of the
Rongomaiwahine Tribe
John F. Charlewood Turner, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1988
Alice Tepper Marlin, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1990 and President of Social
Accountability International
Vesna Teršelič, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1998, Founder of Anti-War
Campaign of Croatia and Director of DOCUMENTA
Shrikrishna Upadhyay, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2010 and and
Chairman of SAPPROS Nepal
Alyn Ware, Member of the World Future Council and Right Livelihood Award
Laureate 2009, Founder and international coordinator of the Network
Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND)
Dr. h.c. Anders Wijkman, Member of the World Future Council, Vice-President of
the Club of Rome, former President of GLOBE EU, former Member of the European
Parliament and former UN Assistant Secretary General
Francisco Whitaker Ferreira, Member of the World Future Council and Right
Livelihood Award Laureate 2006, Co-Founder of the World Social Forum
Alla Yaroshinskaya, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1992, journalist and
former Adviser to the Russian President, former member of Russian
delegations to the United Nations for negotiating an extension of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
Angie Zelter, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2001, Trident Ploughshar