Printer Friendly

BASIC's Project on Getting to Zero

Working Towards a Nuclear Weapon-Free World

Visions for a New Century

Event to launch a new public conversation between opinion makers and policy leaders concerned with nuclear disarmament

Brian Eno hosted this event on behalf of BASIC and the Ploughshares Fund on February 1st, at which people joined together to sign a declaration of support for the global disarmament agenda, which was sent to the White House and Downing Street. The text and list of signatories is below:

Open Letter to President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown

The global challenges of the 21st century, such as climate change and global poverty, demand cooperative solutions. But effective collective action is stymied by cynicism, mutual distrust and systemic inequities. This is most clearly illustrated by the Cold War legacy of nuclear weapons possession and the threat of mutual nuclear annihilation. We are greatly encouraged by the statements of intent from world leaders to move decisively towards a world free of nuclear weapons. This is necessary to avoid the otherwise inevitable proliferation of nuclear weapons, and their acquisition by terrorist organizations. It is also necessary if we are to effectively tackle the many other very pressing global challenges, which the world has to date been unable to address effectively. We are hopeful that you and other world leaders will follow-through on the global nuclear disarmament agenda during 2010, but are conscious that this will take the support of a critical mass of informed public opinion. We urge you to follow through on your statements and your convictions, to resist the anachronistic voices of caution that mislead us into thinking the status quo is an option, and we offer what assistance we can to support this agenda.

Signed:

1 February 2010

More event coverage:

• Visions for A New Century, event summary, London, 1 February 2010.

• Eno sees stars in his latest war on nukes, London Evening Standard, 5 February 2010.

• UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office background on the event.

• See full event brochure (PDF) and more photos on Flickr.

More on Getting to Zero

Working Towards a Nuclear Weapon-Free World

• Latest News
• Chronology and Links
• Getting to Zero Papers
• Getting to Zero Email Updates
• Events

BASIC's work is made possible by the generous support of our donors: the Ploughshares Fund, the Ford Foundation, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Polden Puckham Charitable Foundation, Marmot Trust, Allan and Nesta Ferguson Foundation, Network for Social Change, the Nuclear Education Trust, Rockefeller Family & Associates, and individual contributors to BASIC. We are grateful to all of them for their support.