Guest speaker and Nobel Prize winner, Dimity Hawkins sent us some ideas to share with Rotarians on what could be done to free our world of nuclear weapons. She writes...
Probably the most topical right now is a council focused initiative which asks communities to request their council or city to join the ICAN Global Cities Appeal:
The appeal is worded simply and clearly:
"Our city/town is deeply concerned about the grave threat that nuclear weapons pose to communities throughout the world. We firmly believe that our residents have the right to live in a world free from this threat. Any use of nuclear weapons, whether deliberate or accidental, would have catastrophic, far-reaching and long-lasting consequences for people and the environment.
Therefore, we warmly welcome the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons by the United Nations in 2017, and we call on our national government to sign and ratify it without delay."
There are easily downloadable linked resources on the ICAN Australia website here for the Australian signatories: www.icanw.org/au/cities/ and here for the international website: nuclearban.org/cities/getinvolved#cities-list. You can see there are a growing number of cities and towns all over Australia and the world joining this appeal, and it is a simple and positive action any citizen can take.
For those who might want to learn more about the impact of nuclear weapons in Australia in particular (as many Rotarians' spoke to me after the talk saying they had not known that history) this webpage gives some of the stories I touched on in my talk. www.icanw.org/black-mist/
I hope these might be of use to you and your members. If I can offer any other information in follow up please don't hesitate to ask.