Guess what happened when Anti-nuclear group WISE showed up?
Written byEric Meyer
September 13, 2018
I’m very happy to invite you to attend a historic, pro-nuclear power demonstration in Munich, Germany, on Sunday, October 21, from 10 am to 4 pm!
The official name of the event is the “Nuclear Pride Fest,” and its founding purpose is to save and expand nuclear energy in Europe. The Fest will be held in Marienplatz, Munich’s central plaza.
We are hoping that people come from around the world to participate in this event, and that hundreds participate from within Europe — including families who work in nuclear power.
Nuclear Pride Fest Weekend will be child-and-family-friendly — with fun things for kids, including face-painting and games, workshops, and child care for parents.
Scholarships to cover the cost of travel are available to pro-nuclear student leaders and activists doing grassroots and social media organizing in their home nations.
For more information about attending or getting involved, please email Madison@EnvironmentalProgress.org
If you would like to make a donation to cover the airfare of a pro-nuclear student leader from around the world, please click here.
The event is being organized by independent grassroots civil society organizations but they are are urging families whose members work in nuclear power plants to attend.
The founding Nuclear Pride Coalition members are
- Ecomodernist Society (Finland)
- Ecomodernist Society (Netherlands)
- Environmental Progress (U.S.)
- Partei der Humanisten (Germany)
- Generation Atomic (U.S.)
- Mothers for Nuclear (Switzerland)
- Nuklearia (Germany)
- Saving Our Planet (France-UK-Norway-Turkey)
- Ecomodernist Society (“Ökomoderne”, Germany)
- The Thorium MSR Foundation (Netherlands)
- Students for Nuclear (U.S.)
- Voices for Nuclear (France)
The Nuclear Pride Coalition convened last weekend in Amsterdam. The event opened with its 50-plus participants singing an Elvis song “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You,” where the “You” was replaced by a “U” — the symbol for uranium in the periodic table of elements — to anti-nuclear protesters.
The group then gave daisies to the protesters, who are affiliated with WISE International, a group funded by renewable energy interests. In response, the WISE activists smiled and applauded.
Coalition members view saving and expanding European nuclear power plants as essential to protecting the natural environment, including the climate, and/or safeguarding Europe’s energy security from growing over-dependence on imported natural gas.
You can read account of the meeting’s founding by Iida Ruishalme of Mothers for Nuclear here and by Rainer Klute of Germany’s Nuklearia here. Wrote Iida:
“Rationally, it’s incredible that I should feel ashamed or intimidated for supporting nuclear energy in public. If I feel this way merely for wearing a t-shirt, what about the people who leave their kids to school every day and then head for their jobs at nuclear power plants? Imagine the thousands of people working every day in my neighbouring country, Germany, where the fear-mongering against nuclear power is established on an institutional level (grossly misleading statements from public officials, strong political pressure) – and for what? Should they feel ashamed for helping produce low-carbon energy that has saved millions of lives from air pollution?”
The event was inspiring. All in attendance felt strongly about doing something positive — just like that morning’s song and flower-giving to WISE International.
Nuclear Pride Coalition founders recognize that our name is inspired by the Gay Pride movement and hopes that LGBT+ nuclear leaders and activists embrace our coalition name as a compliment, and not appropriation. We warmly encourage their participation.
