Plenaries

Plenary A: Gard Jameson; Environmental Justiceand the Nevada Desert

Plenary B: John Hadder; The Environmental Impact of Nuclear Weapons at the NTS

Plenary C: Judy Treichel, Steve Frishman & John Hadder: Yucca Mountain and the Future of Nuclear Waste

Plenary D: Candace Ross & Candace Kant; the Cosmic Walk

 

Morning Sessions

Workshop A: Gard Jameson; The Earth Charter

Workshop B:Judy Treichel; The Global Summit and Nuclear Disarmament

Workshop C: Kazu Haga; The Role of Foundations in the Environmental Justice Movement
The Peace Development Fund's (PDF) Building Action for Sustainable Environments (BASE) Initiative supports grassroots communities working on the impacts of the nuclear and chemical weapons industry and energy issues through grants, networking, technical assistance and capacity building. By honoring culture and ceremony, PDF works to build relationships with its grantees that are built on more than money. Program Coordinator Kazu Haga will share some strategies that have made BASE a successful initiative, as well as discuss some strategies for Environmental activists to receive funding from foundations.

Workshop D: Edward R. Washington; New Orleans
Relive and examine the Katrina Disaster, before, during and after as it affects New Orleans and also what this means to Nevada.

 

 

Afternoon Sessions

Workshop A: Carol Perez Petersen; The Soul of Ecology
Through listening to the heart beat of the drum participants will have the opportunity to tune into the rhythm of nature. There is a time to give and time to receive. Nature gives unconditionally. Those called to protect Mother Nature through Environmental Justice are the spiritual defenders of Mother Earth. Consciousness is the mediator of compassion and drives one to explore human relationships with Mother Nature. The core of nonviolent demonstration is compassion.

Workshop B: Launce Rake; WaterGrab: Gambling on the Future Launce will tie together the related issues of urban growth in the Desert Southwest, global warming and impacts to the Rocky Mountains and Colorado River, and the plan to drill, pump and pipe water from the rural Great Basin to support growth in Las Vegas.

Workshop C: Will Parrish; Youth For Environmental Justice: This interactive workshop explores ways that young people throughout the United States are helping to lead the fight for environmental justice in their communities. It will have a main emphasis on political activism related to the poisons deposited by the nuclear fuel chain: uranium mining, uranium milling, urainum enrichment, nuclear weapons production, nuclear weapons testing, nuclear power, and nuclear waste. We'll talk about what it takes to get empowered and join in the struggle!

Workshop D: Claudia Peterson; Sr. Barbara Sheahan; Downwinders

Workshop E: Suzanne Becker; More on the Nevada Test Site

 

 

Speakers Biographies

• Suzanne Becker is a PhD student in the department of sociology at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. She received a B.A. in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MA in sociology from the University of Colorado. From 2004-2007 she was a researcher and interviewer with the UNLV Nevada Test Site Oral History Project (NTSOHP), a federally funded program designed to collect, preserve and disseminate the stories and experiences of those affiliated with and impacted by the NTS since its inception in 1951. Her research with the project focused on the divergent narratives and meanings associated with NTS as an iconic place and space of nuclearism in popular culture and within the Western landscape. Her core areas of research include environmental sociology and social movements.

• Steve Frishman is a nuclear waste programs consultant. From 1983 to 1987, he was Director of the Texas Nuclear Waste Programs Office, with primary responsibility for directing the State of Texas’ oversight of the federal high-level nuclear waste program. He was an appointee to the Committee on Nuclear Energy of the Texas Energy and Natural Resources Advisory Council from 1980 through 1982, advising the State in its participation in the development of the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. He received a Master’s Degree in geology from the University of Texas at Austin. Since 1987 , Mr. Frishman has served as Technical-Policy Coordinator for the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. The Agency was established by the Nevada Legislature, in 1985 to oversee the federal high-level nuclear waste program and the Yucca Mountain Project. He participates, representing the State of Nevada, in meetings and technical exchanges with all of the federal agencies involved in the Yucca Mountain Project and issues related to high-level nuclear waste policy. Mr. Frishman has assisted non-governmental organizations in developing publicly understandable materials regarding the scientific issues at Yucca Mountain and explaining the technical aspects of nuclear waste storage, management, and disposal. He has worked with journalists and international governmental and public interest organizations as well
  

• John E. Hadder is currently the Senior Scientist for Great Basin Research Watch. His academic background is in physical chemistry with a MS from the University of Cincinnati. In 1991 he first visited the Nevada Test Site and became involved with work around nuclear issues in Nevada. Since that time he has been applying his knowledge of chemistry and science to public policy and environmental issues. A regular at Nevada Test Site gatherings, John became a part of the ongoing organizing cadre, and was hired by Citizen Alert in 1997. While on staff he created Citizen Alert’s Nuclear Issues Education Program. He was also the Northern Nevada Coordinator, developing local programs and connecting with regional and national campaigns until 2006. Over the years he has worked in areas of community planning, non-violence and peace work, energy, sustainable transportation, indigenous rights, and general environmental protection. He has developed skills in activism and organizing, and spent time traveling within the Great Basin learning about the land and its people. John also teaches chemistry and math at Truckee Meadows Community College. He serves on the board of directors for the Great Basin Community Food Cooperative, Shundahai Network, the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, and HOME (Healing Ourselves and Mother Earth), where he is now continuing his work on nuclear issues. He is also a thespian, acting, writing, and directing projects with Theoretical Theatre, and also works with the Nevada Shakespeare Company. Here he is doing one of the things he loves; cycling on the open road.

• Kazu Haga is the Program Coordinator of the Peace Development Fund, a national an international foundation supporting grassroots social justice movements. Born in Tokyo, Japan, Kazu moved to the US with his family when he was seven. His introduction to Social Justice work came in 1998 when he participated in the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage. He has since been involved with many organizations in the US and abroad as a volunteer, board member, advisor, or trainer, including work with the Prison Book Project, AFSC, Project 2050, Critical Resistance, Nipponzan Myohoji, and others. He began his work with the Peace Development Fund in Massachusetts in 2002, relocated to the Bay Area in 2006, and now resides in Oakland.

• Gard Jameson, PhD has participated in the Parliament of the World Religions since 1993, part of the discussion on the global environment. He is a Trustee and Amateur Paleontologist at the Alf Museum of Life, and a Trustee at the North American Interfaith Council, the Stillpoint Center for Spiritual Development, as well as at the Nevada Community Foundation. Jameson is also a Professor of Oriental Philosophy at UNLV, and Chair of the Southern Nevada Interfaith Council, the Children's Advocacy Alliance, and Associate Pastor of Grace Community Church in Boulder City, NV. The father of two children, Michael & Julia, Jameson is married to Dr. Florence Jameson.

• Candace Kant has a Ph.D. in History and is a professor at the College of Southern Nevada where she teaches U.S. History, Nevada History, Women's Studies, Goddess Traditions and Modern Pagan Thought. Born in Farmington, New Mexico, she has lived in Las Vegas since 1971, and has two children and two grandchildren. Her book Zane Grey's Arizona was published by Northland Press in 1984 and she has a forthcoming book from the University of Nevada Press titled Letters From A Marriage: Dolly and Zane Grey. She has participated in the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada for five years representing the Temple of Goddess Spirituality.
  

• Will Parrish is an anti-imperialist and ecological justice organizer and writer living in Santa Barbara, CA. A 2004 graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, he served as Youth Empowerment Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation for over two years, coordinating a variety of projects that included the national Think Outside the Bomb network [www.ThinkOutsideTheBomb.org] and UC Nuclear Free campaign [www.UCNuclearFree.org]. He is a co-author of the forthcoming book University of Mass Destruction: the University of California, US Imperialism, and the Nuclear Bomb. He has conducted workshops on nuclear
  weapons for young people throughout the country.
  

• Carol Perez Petersen is grounded in the teachings of Sacred Law, Political and Soul Sovereignty and Cosmo vision--a 35 year holistic vocation. She is an inherent Chief of the Deer Nation, Founder of the Rainbow Medicine Blanket, a Clan Mother Advocacy Council. Her Maya and Druid blood roots of wisdom culture are matrilineal to Masatepe, Nicaragua, the Place of the Deer in the Valley of Corn and to the Labyrinths of Scandinavia. In Patagonia, Argentina, March 2005 at the 2nd gathering of the Confederation of Original Elder Councils of Abya Yala (South America) she was noted as the eagle that approached the condor, powerful lord of the continent. The mountain spirits talked to the council and asked for a voice to the North, and in full agreement, the elders decided Ms. Petersen would always be the voice of the Council’s Heart. As caretaker of a Midewin pipe (a medicine society) Ms. Petersen is recognized by Seventh Generation Lead Thunderbird, and Traditional Hereditary Spiritual Chief of the Soto Anishinabe Federation of Sovereign Nations. In January 2006 she presented the Eagle Feather to Evo Morales at the Pyramid Tiwanacu, Bolivia on the eve of his presidential candidacy. Attuned to Mother Nature, Weather and the Environment, Carol has pledged to serve the land as an Independent Candidate for Congress California District 41. At this time Congressman Jerry Lewis, continues to Chair the House of Appropriations for 18 years. With a belief in term limits, she stood for voluntary resignation in favor of impeachment. She says, "As a write-in candidate my success lies in the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense."
  

• Launce Rake works on water, conservation and growth issues for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, a coalition working for social, economic and environmental justice in the Silver State. Launce, who is also a member of Sierra Club and a board member of Great Basin Water Network, worked for almost two decades as a journalist focusing on environmental issues. In the course of his work in Nevada, the Caribbean and other locales, he covered Yucca Mountain, the Nevada Test Site, the proposed Divine Strake detonation at the Test Site, endangered species such as sea turtles and the desert tortoise, global warming and water issues of all kinds.

• Candace Ross is a long time community activist from southern California, has recently relocated to the Las Vegas area. Her current commitments include coordinating for the local chapter of CodePink, working with the Interfaith Council of Nevada, and officiating at the Temple of Goddess Spirituality, . located in Cactus Springs. The Temple is a project of The Gift Economy, built and funded by activst/philanthropist, Genevieve Vaughan. Ms. Ross has dedicated the remainder of her life to the promotion of peace and social justice.

• Sister Barbara Sheahan was born in Las Vegas and raised at the Groom Mine in Lincoln County, the mining camp that her grandfather staked claims on , in 1889, - later better known as "Area 51". Childhood memories include watching the "Mushroom Clouds" from nine (9) to fifteen (15) miles away, from her own front porch.

• Judy Treichel Judy Treichel was a founder of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force. Since 1987, when
  Yucca Mountain, Nevada was singled out as the sole site to be studied for a national high-level nuclear waste repository, she has served as the executive director of the Task Force. In that capacity she works as a liaison between the public interest community and the federal government agencies involved in the nuclear waste issue and Yucca Mountain. She brings a public voice to technical meetings and provides information to grassroots organizations and individuals regarding the nuclear waste issue and federal programs that concern and affect their communities. She has been a presenter at national and international conferences and is frequently contacted by media and others who want a citizen perspective on the very technical issues involved with Yucca Mountain.

• Edward R. Washington has his doctorate in Education. He currently resides in Henderson, NV, forced to relocate after Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Washington serves as Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the College of Southern Nevada. A life-time educator in New Orleans, Dr. Washington has rich experiences as a Public School Principal, School District Consultant, as well as in counseling with victims of abuse and social neglect.

 

 

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