Marshall Islands sues nuclear weapons countries

This video says about itself:

Collateral Damage: Atomic Testing in the Marshall Islands

Between 1946 and 1958, the U.S. detonated 67 nuclear devices in and around the Marshall Islands. The impact of these tests on the Marshallese people was profound – in terms of both actual radioactive exposure and the displacement of people from their home islands due to contamination and to accommodate the U.S. military.

This clip is excerpted from Episode 6 of “UNNATURAL CAUSES: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?“, a ground-breaking documentary series that looks at how the social, economic and physical environments in which we are born, live, and work profoundly affect our longevity and health.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Marshall Islands sues nine nuclear powers over disarmament failure

Thursday 24th April 2014

Pacific group takes case to the Hague over global failure to pursue disarmament

The tiny Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands began a legal battle today to demand the world’s nine nuclear-armed powers meet their disarmament obligations.

It accused them of “flagrant violations” of international law.

The island group, which was used for 67 US nuclear tests, filed a case with the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

It claims the nine countries are modernising their nuclear arsenals instead of negotiating disarmament.

The countries targeted include the US, Russia, Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea.

The last four are not party to the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, but the lawsuit argues they are bound by its provisions under “customary international law.”

“Our people have suffered the catastrophic and irreparable damage of these weapons and we vow to fight so that no one else on earth will ever again experience these atrocities,” Foreign Minister Tony de Brum said.

THE SLOW DISAPPEARANCE OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS “Most of the 1,000 or so Marshall Islands, spread out over 29 narrow coral atolls in the South Pacific, are less than six feet above sea level — and few are more than a mile wide. For the Marshallese, the destructive power of the rising seas is already an inescapable part of daily life.” [NYT]

SO IT TURNS OUT SETTING OFF NUKES UNDERWATER DOESN’T GO SO WELL “The Navy had believed [in 1946] that many of the target ships would survive the blast, be decontaminated, and sail out of the lagoon. But, within two weeks, Navy leaders had to admit that the ships were so soaked in radiation, they couldn’t be saved, and the Marshall Islands became graveyards for irradiated vessels.” [Atlas Obscura]

Godzilla first made his debut in 1954. At inception, he was a 50-meter tall metaphor for indiscriminate destruction, particularly U.S. hydrogen-bomb testing in the Marshall Islands, which, in the film, destroyed Godzilla’s deep-sea ecosystem. Sixty-five years and 35 films later, Godzilla is back and bigger than ever in Godzilla: King of the Monsters: here.

Radiation levels in parts of the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, where the United States conducted nearly 70 nuclear tests during the Cold War, are still alarmingly high. Researchers tested soil samples on four uninhabited isles and discovered that they contained concentrations of nuclear isotopes that are significantly higher than those found near Chernobyl and Fukushima: here.