GREEN EVENTS 9-19-10-1 and a visit from Fukishima Families in NYC

This is a busy time for anti-nuclear, fracking, climate change and other green activism.  I’ve created a short list of green talks, rallies, and other events taking place mostly in NYC.  You can find the “Green Events” list at the end of this blog piece.  In future lists, I'll highlight events elsewhere as well.

For this week’s list, I’ve highlighted an important series of events including talks and discussions by a delegation of Japanese families who have been impacted negatively by the radiation released from the nuclear plant meltdowns in Fukishima since March 11, 2011.  They are coming to the U.S. to share their stories. This week we have a rare opportunity to learn about this nuclear disaster from live, powerful first-hand accounts.

One of the speakers, Kaori Izumi--director of Shut Tomari-- states, “The immense suffering of people affected by the Fukushima-Daiichi disaster can only be given meaning if we now learn from this catastrophe and those that preceded it at Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and elsewhere.”

The delegation of families from Japan have come to NYC to appeal to the UN High Commission on Human Rights to recognize and address the plight of children in the Fukushima region. Many of these children were not evacuated far enough – or at all – out of harm’s way from the radiation contamination from the reactor meltdowns. The speakers also ask that the Fukushima disaster becomes a new opportunity for the world to shut down all nuclear power plants.

The members of the Japanese delegation include Sachiko Sato, an organic farmer from Fukushima and a board member of “Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation” and her 13- and 17-year old children, Mina and Yuuki who will talk about the disruption and damage to their lives and livelihoods; Yukiko Anzai, a resident near the restarted Tomari reactor, who will talk about the fate of farmers after the meltdowns; Kaori Izumi, director of Shut-down Tomari, who will discuss the unhealthy and corrupting relationship between government, business, the media and pro-nuclear intellectuals and the Japanese judiciary. They also include Aileen Mioko Smith, Executive Director of Green Action and a veteran anti-nuclear campaigner in Japan who will speak about the plight of Japan’s children and the petition she submitted on their behalf to the UN.

Hearing the voices of the Japanese families is important to our understanding of the catastrophic events in Fukishima since March 11, 2011.  As we consider the future of nuclear power in the U.S. and throughout the world, we need to understand the risks, dangers and realities of such disasters on local children, families, farms, economies, and more.  Come listen to the families speak.


I will go and listen, and then I'll write. 



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Green Events (mostly in NYC):

--September 19, 2011  8:30 p.m.  Busboys & Poets, Langston Room, 2021 V St, NW, Washington, DC. Tel: 202.387.7683.  The Japanese Delegation will speak.

--Sep 21, 2011 5:00-9:00 pm.  Ethical Culture Society, 2 West 64th Street at Central   Park West in New York City.  Film showing of:  Knocking on the Devil's Door: Our Deadly Nuclear Legacy, directed by Gary Null.  Special presentations will be given by Gary Null, Harvey Wasserman, and the Japanese Delegation.   (tickets: $25; $15 for students).
                      
--Sep 22, 2011 noon.  Friends Meeting House, 15 Rutherford Place  NYC.
Meeting with Delegation of Japanese families from Fukushima.

--Sep 22, 2011  2 pm. 250 Broadway City Council Hearing on Hydrofracking
16th Floor.  NYC. Committee Room Revised Environmental Impact Statement Impact.

--Sept. 22  7-9:00 pm.   Cooper Union’s Great Hall 7 East 7th Street.  NYC
Food Rights and Peace:  An Evening with Frances Moore Lappe, Vandana Shiva, and Anna Lappe. (Free)

--Sep 23, 2011  7:00  pm.   Center for Remembrance Sharing,  123 4th Ave (2nd Floor) NYC
Meet and hear report from the Japanese Delegation from Fukishima.

--Sep 24, 2011  2:00 pm.  Converging on UN 47th St & 1st Ave. NYC
Moving Planet: Bike/ Walk Rally opposing Climate Change, 350.org., Anti-nuclear Rally.


--Sept 25, 9:30-5:30pm.  26^th St @ Pier 46  NYC Friends of Clearwater Water Festival. Talks on nuclear power and fracking with Ken Gale (WBAI) and Chris Williams

 --Oct 1, 2011 12:00-3 pm. Pier 95, 55th St & 12th Ave. NYC
Coalition Against Nukes in NYC  (rallies taking place throughout the
U.S.  locations listed here http://www.coalitionagainstnukes.org/) Anti-Nuclear Power Rally in NYC with Dr. Helen Caldicott, Harvey Wasserman, Karl Grossman, Alice Slater, Kevin Kamps, John Hall.


If you would like to suggest events to be included and posted in my future “Green Events” lists of happenings, email your requests to: hjhutner@gmail.com.


This post is available at  TerraSpheres as well-- where I am editor (and a writer) of the environmental section called "Planet".