We Need Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Now! Billboard on International Day of World Peace 2022

NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE ILLEGAL BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN- PRESS CONFERENCE
Ohio Green Party of the United States
www.ohiogreens.org

For Immediate Release:
DATE: September 20th, 2022

Contact:
Susan Kuehn smkuehn@earthlink.net (415) 225-5916
Terry Lodge lodgelaw@yahoo.com, (419) 205-7084
Philena Farley, Ohio Co-chair, pifbits@ohiogreens.org , 614-859-9147

NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE ILLEGAL BILLBOARD — ANTI NUKE, NUCLEAR WEAPONS BAN

TOLEDO – Ohio Green Party of the United States in coalition with the Nuclear Weapons Abolition Working Group of the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition invite you to attend the special unveiling of the Billboard on the UN International Day of World Peace, September 21, 2022 to demand the U.S. Congress Ratify the Treaty on The Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN- PRESS CONFERENCE

WHEN: September, 21, 2022 at 10:30am – 11:30 am Eastern Time

WHERE: North East Corner of Talmadge Road and Sylvania Avenue, Toledo, Ohio

WHY: To Demand the U.S. Congress Ratify the Treaty on The Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Global Nuclear Rearmament Plan

The U.S. government’s present nuclear rearmament plan includes the production of new nuclear weapons – 600 land-based Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles on hair-trigger alert in the Midwest; a new nuclear cruise missile; a long-range strike bomber, a new gravity bomber, new F-35’s and a Sea-Launched Cruise Missile. The last two weapons systems are capable of carrying conventional and nuclear weapons that might confuse an adversary.

China, the United Kingdom, and Russia are among other nuclear-armed states increasing their arsenals, with China reportedly developing 100 new missile silos in its east. The UK is redesigning military bunkers to house US nuclear weapons for the first time in 14 years/Russia is slated to deploy new intercontinental Sarmat missiles in Siberia, each having up to 15 nuclear warheads capable of reaching a target 11,000 miles away.

Alaska is only 3,000 miles from Siberia.

“As the war in Ukraine drags on and the potential for nuclear war or the weaponization of the Zaphorizhzhia nuclear power plant continues, the fate of the world hangs in the balance,” said Susan Kuehn, Convener of the NWOPC’s Nuclear Weapons Abolition Committee.

We must step back from the brink. We need negotiations, not escalation, and to cut off all expenditures to Ukraine for both nuclear and conventional weapons.

“As Chair of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies, we continue to urge Congresswoman Kaptur in the strongest terms to use her vast authority and power to stop approving hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars, of federal taxpayer money to promote the expansion and ‘modernization’ of nuclear weapons; and instead to commit to work for the total elimination of nuclear weapons by ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,” said Terry Lodge, Co-convener of the NWOPC Nuclear Weapons Abolition Committee. “Our government cannot call for peace in Ukraine while simultaneously supplying that country with advanced rocket systems and missiles that could lead to a direct war between the U.S. and Russia, the world’s most heavily armed nuclear nations.”

“Nuclear nations need to recognize the folly in maintaining their arsenals and in their pursuit of new nuclear weapons, be they short or long range. Any use of these weapons would be catastrophic, not just for the target but for the entire human race. Radiation poisoning and black carbon winters respect no geographic boundaries,” asserted Josie Setzler, Coordinator of the NWOPC Nuclear Weapons Abolition Committee.

Global stockpile of nuclear weapons map — Large stockpile with global range (dark blue), smaller stockpile with global range (medium blue), small stockpile with regional range (light blue)

The Green Party’s Peace Action Committee (GPAX) on July 6, 2020, endorsed the Green Party World Peace Platform, which says, in part, “The Green Party calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons through legislative and diplomatic means. Until that goal can be accomplished, our government must adopt a no-first-strike policy and no-preemptive strike policy. Our government must abide by all nuclear arms control treaties that limit proliferation, improve safeguards, and reduce sizes of nuclear arsenals leading to elimination, such as the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) . . . . Our government must honor its commitments to end the research, testing and stockpiling of all nuclear weapons of any size; and dismantle all nuclear warheads from their missiles.”

We propose a set of peace initiatives as a way out of this life-or-death emergency. The U.S. should: