WHO WE ARE

NuclearBan.US is a 501c4 non-profit organization committed to the total elimination of nuclear weapons and fossil fuels. All the human, financial and political resources wasted on nuclear weapons could be used to solve – and pay for – the remaining challenges to a complete decarbonization of the economy, thus saving the planet from two existential threats at once.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW, or “Nuclear Ban Treaty”), agreed in 2017 by 122 countries at the United Nations, bans everything to do with nuclear weapons, no “ands”, “ifs” or “buts”! This treaty represents the overwhelming consensus of world public opinion on what can and must be done to save this planet from the threat posed by nuclear weapons. So long as these weapons exist, there is the increasing possibility of their use.

The United States can and must sign the TPNW as a first step towards the total elimination of these weapons. Prior to ratification by the Senate and entry into force of the treaty for the United States, the US should work with the other 8 nuclear-armed nations to ensure this leads to the complete, verifiable and irreversible elimination of all nuclear weapons from all countries.

We are already in the midst of a climate crisis, but to avoid a climate catastrophe that could make this planet uninhabitable, greenhouse gas emissions must be urgently and drastically curtailed. The Paris Agreement does not even mention fossil fuels, and yet 86% of global CO2 emissions (and nearly 80% of all greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, etc) are from the burning of fossil fuels. Nothing is more important to restoring a sustainable climate than ending all burning of fossil fuels as soon as possible.

A new Fossil Fuel Treaty would make everything to do with the continued burning of fossil fuels as illegal as the continued production and maintenance of nuclear weapons. These two treaties, above all, put pressure on the private companies which are involved in both these industries – and which operate all across the globe.

NuclearBan.US is committed to using the Nuclear Ban Treaty and a future Fossil Fuel Treaty as tools to educate people across the US to support the elimination of both nuclear weapons and fossil fuels for the sake of our survival.

NuclearBan.US focuses specifically on getting towns, cities, counties and states to “align” themselves with these international agreements, by disconnecting and divesting, as far as possible, from both fossil fuels and the nuclear weapons industry. This sends a powerful message: The age of nuclear weapons and fossil fuels is now over, and we must move on to a different way of relating to the rest of the world and to the planet.

NuclearBan.US is now coordinating, and raising funds for, the advocacy work of the Warheads to Windmills Coalition. Donations for this (non-tax-deductible) work can be made out to: Warheads to Windmills (Advocacy).

OUR APPROACH

As a campaign, we aim to be open, inclusive, cooperative, creative, enthusiastic, joyful, democratic, transparent and accountable. We celebrate our differences and encourage fresh thinking to find new ways to solve a 75-year-old problem.

OUR VISION

We are working for the total elimination of all nuclear weapons and for a complete end to the burning of fossil fuels. We need to stand in solidarity with the rest of the world on these issues, and end these threats to our survival before it’s too late.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to contribute to the total elimination of nuclear weapons and fossil fuels by building a national movement committed to boycotting and divesting from the corporations responsible for these existential threats to humanity. We promote and advocate for legislation and policies at the national, state and local levels that will put financial and social pressures on these corporations and force them to change course.

OUR GOALS

In order to get the United States to sign the Nuclear Ban Treaty and negotiate a Fossil Fuel Treaty phasing out all burning of fossil fuels, our goals are:

1. To get towns, cities, counties and states to disconnect from the nuclear weapons and fossil fuel industries – as far as they are able – in order to align with the Nuclear Ban Treaty and a future Fossil Fuel Treaty.
2. To build support within congress and the federal government for the elimination of nuclear weapons and fossil fuels, especially through the “Warheads to Windmills” bill which calls on the US to sign the Nuclear Ban Treaty and put all those wasted human and financial resources into the major national effort to build the gree economy.
3. To educate people about the continued threat of nuclear weapons and climate change, to stigmatize the nuclear weapons and fossil fuel industries, and to build support for the Nuclear Ban Treaty and a Fossil Fuel Treaty.
4. To build a popular movement across the country that demands adherence to the Nuclear Ban Treaty and a Fossil Fuel Treaty in every possible sphere and entity.

OUR TEAM

Board

Trudy Knowles, NuclearBan.US Board President

Maxine Schmidt, NuclearBan.US Clerk

Nick Cantrell, NuclearBan.US Treasurer

Susan Theberge, coordinator of Climate Action Now (Western Mass)

Ivana Hughes, President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Staff

Timmon Milne Wallis, Executive Director

Timmon Milne Wallis is the Executive Director of NuclearBan.US. He holds a PhD in Peace Studies from Bradford University.  He has served as executive director of Nonviolent Peaceforce, and he has directed peace-building projects in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Georgia, Myanmar, Chechnya, Croatia, Sri Lanka, Philippines, and South Sudan.

He has also served as editor of Peace News, as director of the National Peace Council (UK), as international secretary of Peace Brigades International, as training manager for International Alert, and as programme manager for Quakers in Britain.  He was the founder and director of Peaceworkers UK.

His book, Disarming the Nuclear Argument: The Truth About Nuclear Weapons, analyzes the cost, accident risk, and legality of nuclear weapons, and the absurdity of the whole concept of perpetuating nuclear weapons as “deterrence.”  The book played a role in the successful July 2017 United Nations negotiations for a Nuclear Ban Treaty, and it is a handbook for those seeking a safer, saner world.

Vicki Elson, Co-Founder and Creative Director

Vicki Elson is the co-founder of NuclearBan.US and serves as the Creative Director.  She is also the Executive Director of TreatyAwareness.US. For 35 years, Vicki has worked as a childbirth educator, filmmaker, and labor support “doula.”   She is also a chapter leader of Represent.US, fighting Big Money in politics – the most egregious example of which is the existence of nuclear weapons, making profits for a few while threatening existence for everyone. In July 2017, she had a life-changing opportunity to witness the U.N. negotiations for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and she watched the roomful of ambassadors break all their own rules (no clapping, no hugging) when the Treaty was agreed. Now she’s spreading the message of total abolition to communities across the USA.  She thinks that’s an even more important way to help babies and families to live happy, healthy lives.  She also writes little songs to inspire citizen action.

Kathleen Hamill, General Counsel

Kathleen Hamill is a human rights lawyer and advocate.  She currently co-chairs the working group on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons with Massachusetts Peace Action Network.  Hamill has taught courses on international law at the graduate level including International Human Rights Law, Current Issues in Human Rights, Human Rights and Business, and Human Rights in the Arab Region at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (2002-2018).  She has authored research reports, policy briefs, and book chapters.  As an affiliate of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, Hamill also participated in conferences, panel discussions, and expert meetings including The World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul (2016), The Global Conflict Medicine Congress in Beirut (2017), International Law Symposium at the University of Virginia Law School (2019).  She holds a Juris Doctorate from Boston College Law School, a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, and a BA from Brown University.

Anduin DeVos, Campaign Director

Anduin DeVos is the Campaign Director at NuclearBan.US.  She studied psychology, neuroscience, and social work in the Honors College at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, hoping to gain the tools to help people.  Being surrounded by activism her whole life, after graduation she realized that one of the most important ways to help people is to fight for the planet they live on.  She is a strong believer in educating people about the truth of nuclear weapons and their intersectionality with the climate crisis.  If enough people have the tools to do the work, it will get done.

David Grant, Advocacy Associate

David Grant began holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has produced and directed television programs for PBS, volunteered with the Peace Corps in the Philippines, coordinated a soup kitchen in Seattle, served as a representative at the annual commemoration at Hiroshima. and published essays. He has been a prominent Vietnam War resister, a community organizer, and a homesteader. He served in leadership roles in Rural Southern Voice for Peace, International Fellowship of Reconciliation’s nonviolence program, and Nonviolent Peaceforce. He has also written, edited, produced and directed literary and media projects. Some were for his own Common Lot Productions on the subject of expanding democracy’s representational reach. To that end he helped organize the international conference “Democracy in the 21st Century” at the Library of Alexandria, Egypt.

OUR PARTNERS

We are proud to be a US partner of The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)

and to work with a growing number of national, state and local organizations that make up the Warheads to Windmills Coalition.

CONTACT US

NuclearBan.US:
59 Gleason Road, Northampton, MA 01060

Email: [email protected]

NEXT STEPS

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