Earth Matters /
Jay Coghlan & Tina Cordova on NM Nuclear Legacy

The Legacy of the US Nuclear Weapons Program in New Mexico with
Jay Coghlan / Nuclear Watch New Mexico and
Tina Cordova / Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium

On July 16, 1945, the United States detonated the first atom bomb at the Trinity Site within the Tularosa Basin in the southern New Mexico desert northeast of Truth or Consequences.  Weeks later our country dropped nuclear bombs on Japan, killing hundreds of thousands of people and ending the Second World War.  This week marks the 70th anniversary of the US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Allyson Siwik – Earth Matters co-producer and Executive Director of the Gila Resources Information Project – talks about the legacy of the US nuclear weapons program in New Mexico with Jay Coghlan, Executive Director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, one of the nation’s most effective grassroots nuclear watchdog organizations, and Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, working to ensure that the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act is extended to include the people of New Mexico.

These are complex subjects but the following links provide extensive information…

• Nuclear Watch New Mexico
• Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium
• Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium/how to help
  Take Action to Support Compensation for the NM downwinders
• Radiation Exposure Compensation Act
• Children of the Bomb – A documentary film
• Tom Udall re: Trinity Downwinders
  Tom Udall addresses Congress about extending compensation to Trinity downwinders – https://youtu.be/CeymX8K_CwA

News articles and programs:

• PBS / Living legacy of world’s first atomic bomb test
• KOB TV / Tularosa Basin residents tell Udall of health struggles after Trinity test
• Alamogordo News / Udall meets Tularosa Downwinders
• SF New Mexican / Tularosa Basin Downwinders seek recognition
• Al Jazeera / Health concerns persist 70 years after 1st Atomic Bomb

70th Anniversary US Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki Commemorative Events:

• Film Screening / Message from Hiroshima
  Thursday 6 August 2015 / 70th Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima
  Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM
  http://www.ccasantafe.org/cinematheque/upcoming-films/382-nuke-watch
• Hiroshima & Nagasaki Commemoration
  Sunday 9 August 2015 / 70th Anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  Gough Park / Silver City, NM / 12:30pm
  Sponsored by the Silver City Friends Meeting
• Public Forum: Nuclear New Mexico, Past and Future
  Thursday 20 August 2015 / 6pm
  WNMU Miller Library.  The panelists included David Culp (Friends Committee on National Legislation) and Paul Magno, who has long experience with Plowshares.  Both are from Washington, D.C.  Elizabeth Driggers represented Sen. Tom Udall’s office and Sen. Martin Heinrich submitted a letter of support read by moderator Nick Seibel – publisher of the Silver City Daily Press.

The Forum was hosted by WNMU, Grant County Democratic Party and Silver City Friends Meeting.

In observance of the 70th Anniversaries of the 1st detonation of a nuclear weapon at the Trinity Site in the Tularosa Basin of New Mexico and the US nuclear attacks upon Hiroshima and Nakagaski, GMCR & KURU are presenting several programs related to these events that have changed the world and threaten its ultimate destruction.  Follow the links below to hear these programs.

• Earth Matters / Jay Coghlan & Tina Cordova on NM Nuclear Legacy
• Civil Discourse / Pathways To A Nuclear-Free Future
  A conversation with Daniel Ellsberg, Jackie Cabasso, and David Hartsough
• Civil Discourse / Nuclear New Mexico – Past & Future – WNMU Forum
• Civil Discourse / Nuclear New Mexico – The Quest for Peace & Justice
  An interview w/ Tina Cordova, Paul Magno & David Culp

Earth Matters airs Tuesday & Thursday at 10am and 8pm.
The podcast will be available shortly via this link…
Earth Matters / Jay Coghlan & Tina Cordova on Nuke

Please note that beginning September 2015, Earth Matters will be broadcast on GMCR & KURU on Tuesday, Thursday & Sunday at 10am and Thursday at 8pm.