Visions of a Nuclear Apocalypse: Notions of Nature in the 1970s Antinuclear Movement

In 1970s Queensland, widespread concern about the perils of nuclear technology prompted an explosion of protest. Those seeking to avert a nuclear apocalypse used three arguments to mobilize supporters, which still resonate today: erosion of the rights of protesters, workers, and First Nations people...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gulliver, Robyn
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Environment & Society Portal, Rachel Carson Center 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arcadia.ub.uni-muenchen.de/arcadia/article/view/367
Description
Summary:In 1970s Queensland, widespread concern about the perils of nuclear technology prompted an explosion of protest. Those seeking to avert a nuclear apocalypse used three arguments to mobilize supporters, which still resonate today: erosion of the rights of protesters, workers, and First Nations peoples; profiteering and power grabbing by the nuclear industry; and harms to human health. While nature played an indirect role as a victim in these messages, one of the antinuclear movement’s legacies is its construction of a narrative connecting human survival to nature’s beneficence: in the nuclear age we are no longer the true masters of our own fate.