PeaceQuest
  • Home
  • Projects
  • Blog
  • About Us
  • Donate
  • Email Us: sstaples@peacequest.ca
  • For teachers: WarandChildren.com
  • Subscribe to our weekly newsletter
PeaceQuest
  • Home
  • Projects
  • Blog
  • About Us
    • Welcome
  • Donate Now

    Scholarship fund studious poor children

    Notice: Test mode is enabled. While in test mode no live donations are processed.

    $
    Select Payment Method
    Personal Info

    Donation Total: $10

New York City’s new video warning about nuclear war is stirring controversy

Homepage PeaceQuest Cape Breton New York City’s new video warning about nuclear war is stirring controversy
PeaceQuest Cape Breton

New York City’s new video warning about nuclear war is stirring controversy

10 August 2022
By Steven Staples
0 Comment
1302 Views

PeaceQuest Cape Breton’s Sean Howard shares with us astonishing news from New York City that the mayor’s office has released a new video warning Big Apple residents about nuclear war. And it’s generating some controversy from unlikely places.

The video is a modern take on the old “duck and cover” films shown to school kids back in the 1950s at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union (now the Russian Federation).

“So there’s been a nuclear attack. Don’t ask me how or why, just know that the Big One has hit. OK? So, what do we do? There are three important steps that I want you to remember…,” says the video’s narrator. 

“The PSA [public service announcement] is well-produced, set in a spacious apartment and soothingly narrated by a charming young woman, sounding rather like a schoolteacher mildly concerned about bee-stings on an upcoming class picnic,” writes Howard.

While its disquieting that New York needs to warn people about nuclear war, some feel that the video is not telling people the truth about the horrible impacts of a nuclear explosion, from which there is little defence.

Experts fear it is repeating the mistakes of the past, when “civil defence” commercials and leaflets told people how to build atomic bomb bunkers and store food and water, while fires and radiation ravaged the planet.  

“Like so much ‘civil defense advice’—as nuclear expert Dr. Jeffrey Lewis promptly tweeted—it is ‘designed’ to serve a cynical purpose: ‘to make people feel better without really leveling with them,’” says Howard.

Mayor Eric Adams responds, “I’m a big believer in ‘Better safe than sorry,’” and that the very proactive step was justified by public concern over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Howard’s essay this week also looks at developments at the United Nations where counties are reviewing the state of the most famous disarmament treaty, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT.

  • Read “Mixed Progress on Banning ‘The Big One’” by Sean Howard, published August 10, 2022 by the Cape Breton Spectator.  
Tags: Nuclear Ban Treaty

Previous Story
This is the darkest Hiroshima Day in decades – but there’s hope
Next Story
UN Summit on Education holds great promise

Related Articles

What did George Orwell say about nuclear war?

Two or three monstrous superstates, each possessed of a weapon...

Webinar: Canada and the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons

Hosted by Project Ploughsharres

Categories

  • Action
  • Analysis
  • Commentary
  • Event
  • PeaceQuest Cape Breton
  • PeaceQuest Kingston
  • PeaceQuest Regina
  • Resource
  • Teachers

Contact

PeaceQuest Leadership and Education Initiative

c/o Steven Staples, Chairperson

225 Sumach Street W303

Toronto  ON M5A 0P8

Email: sstaples@peacequest.ca

Phone: m. 647-327-7187

PeaceQuest Info

  • Projects
  • Blog
  • About Us
  • Donate
  • Subscribe

Local Groups

  • Cape Breton
  • Kingston
  • Regina

 

 

Teachers

  • WarandChildren.com
Copyright ©2020 PeaceQuest Leadership and Education Initiative
SearchPostsLogin
Friday, 27, Jan
Could Canada and NATO tanks risk escalating the war in Ukraine?
Wednesday, 25, Jan
With the F-35 buy, has Canada has given up on peace-building?
Tuesday, 24, Jan
Webinar: Myths, Realities, and Implications of China’s Nuclear Buildup
Friday, 20, Jan
Fans want to save the iconic Vancouver Folk Music Festival
Friday, 20, Jan
Meet the nuclear commanders who now work to ban the bomb
Thursday, 19, Jan
Watch the 2023 Doomsday Clock announcement

Welcome back,