Free Speech TV announces network premiere of Crimes Against The Future

Crimes Against The Future, a wide-ranging environmental documentary, will have its U.S. national broadcast premiere on Wednesday, September 4th, at 7 p.m. EST, on Free Speech TV. There will also be a global streaming simulcast on freespeech.org

Directed and produced by award-winner Frank Melli and hosted by the award-winning Karl Grossman (Enviro Close-Up), Crimes Against The Future investigates the environmental and human rights crimes currently being committed, and putting it into perspective for what it means for future generations.

Ranging from climate change to the dangers of nuclear power, this documentary methodically and expertly defines our moral imperative to act now! With special appearances by Bianca Jagger of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation; science broadcaster Dr. David Suzuki; Dr. Helen Caldicott, a founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility; best-selling author, Dr. Michio Kaku, City University of New York professor of theoretical physics; Derek Osborn, president of Stakeholders Forum; Randy Hayes of Foundation of Earth; Hunter Lovins of Natural Capital Solutions; Brice Lalonde, former environmental minister of France; and environmental journalist Barbara Y.E. Pyle; Crimes Against The Future defines our moral imperative to act now!

Broadcast Schedule (EST)

Sep 04, 2019     7PM EST

Sep 09, 2019     3AM EST

Sep 11, 2019     5AM EST

Sep 14, 2019     3PM EST

Sep 15, 2019     6PM EST

Sep 28, 2019     11PM EST

A Call To Arms: Be A Part Of The Solution

As a supplement to the Crimes Against The Future documentary, we also put together an ACTION TOOLKIT with recommendations on what people can do to help stop these crimes against the future.

The ACTION TOOLKIT condenses years of experience and expertise into an actionable document that provides the means for CEO's, local governments, organizations and citizens to get involved and make a difference towards a sustainable planet.

Link to ACTION TOOLKIT:

https://mellipro.wixsite.com/melliproductions/crimes-against-the-future

About Free Speech TV

Free Speech TV is a national, independent, nonprofit news network committed to advancing progressive social change. As the alternative to media networks owned by billionaires, governments, and corporations, Free Speech TV elevates unique perspectives through daily news programs, independent documentaries and special events coverage.

Free Speech TV reaches more than 38 million households nationally on DISH (channel 9415), DIRECTV (348), Sling TV, and over 150 community cable affiliates. Free Speech TV streams live 24/7 at freespeech.org, is available on-demand and streaming on Roku and Apple TV, and maintains an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Free Speech TV believes a more just and democratic world is possible when the media empowers people with the information they need to fight for what matters.  

Frances Crowe, Anti-Nuclear Activist Extraordinaire, Passes on at 100

Frances Crowe. Photo by Robbie Leppzer. Used with permission.The sub-headline of France Crowe's obituary in the New York Times reads: "The bombing of Hiroshima led her to devote her life to antiwar protests. She was arrested often, but when asked how often, she said, 'Not enough.'" (As Democracy Now! has reported, Frances passed on, on August 27, 2019 in Northampton, MA, surrounded by family and friends.)

That question was asked to her by an Associated Press reporter, so her answer was published in newspapers across the country, on March 22, 2012. That was the first day of the Vermont Yankee (VY) atomic reactor's broadly resisted 20-year license extension. Well over a thousand protestors marched through the streets of Brattleboro, to Energy Nuclear's HQ in Vernon. 136 were arrested there that day -- including Frances Crowe (93 years old at the time) and numerous of her activist-sisters in the "Shut It Down!" affinity group, wearing their "uniform" (matching, but each one unique!), handmade, rainbow batik tee shirts. (See photo, above left.) It was but one of countless times Frances was arrested at VY.

Two and a half years later, at 12:24pm on December 29, 2014, VY shut down for good, despite its 20-year license extension, bowing to public pressure. Frances was a co-leader of the shutdown campaign.

Her inspirational role in the VY shutdown movement is reflected, and now memorialized, in Robbie Leppzer's documentary film, Power Struggle.

But as documented in Leppzer's film Seabrook 1977, Crowe played a key role there too, during those early Clamshell Alliance actions.

Re: Crowe's part at the early Seabrook protests, anti-nuke photographer Lionel Delevingne's book To the Village Square, From Montague to Fukushima: 1975-2014 is co-dedicated to her: "Dedicated to Steve Turner and Frances Crowe, who have inspired me since Day One, and to the children of the world, the reason for this book."

Delevingne quotes Crowe on page 33:

"Others joined us until we were 2,000 strong from 30 states -- proud, scared, giddy, determined, and righteous. Each of us passionate enough about the wrongness of nuclear power to risk arrest. Some of us passionate enough to change our lives."

--France Crowe, who describes herself as an 'antiwar activist since Hiroshima, working to stop nuclear weapons and nuclear power as a first step.'

But Seabrook and Vermont Yankee only bookend Frances's anti-nuclear power activism. There was also her anti-nuclear weapons activism, her anti-war/pro-peace work, and her efforts in many other justice and environmental causes, that endured for many decades. To learn more about Frances's remarkable life, check out her memoir, entitled Finding My Radical Soul.

The icing on her 100th birthday cake, and many decades of activism, came in March 2019.

As reported in the New York Times obituary:

As she looked forward to her 100th birthday, she told The Times: “I don’t want a party. I want an action that will accomplish something.”

On the day she turned 100 — March 15, 2019 — hundreds of well-wishers swarmed into downtown Northampton. She led a celebratory march in her wheelchair; marchers carried signs supporting the Green New Deal and calling for an end to gun violence and war.

Frances had requested that a hundred others with homemade signs about issues they care about join her. Hundreds came!

It has been an honor and privilege for Beyond Nuclear to call Frances a colleague and a friend. Undoubtedly, her legacy will continue to inspire countless people, including very young activists to whom she has now passed the torch.

[See also a tribute written by filmmaker Robbie Leppzer.]

ATTEND, COMMENT: Decommissioning Meetings across the country

NRC announced 11 public meetings regarding establishment of local community advisory boards (CABs). These meetings run from August through October, 2019 and are in places where reactors are decommissioning. NRC will accept written comments through mid-November 2019 if you cannot attend a meeting in person.

The initiative began with an August 8th NRC webinar. These proceedings were recorded by Nick Maxwell at WeTheFourth in New Mexico.

The first of 11 meetings, on August 21, discussed Palisades nuclear facility in Michigan. Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste specialist, testified along with other concerned groups and individuals.

The next group of meetings will be in California if you want to attend in person:

August 26 (Humbolt Bay);

August 27 (Diablo Canyon);

August 29, (San Onofre)

Click links for times and locations.

COMMENT electronically using the questionnaire NRC has provided. You may also complete a paper copy of the questionnaire then scan and email to NRC NEIMA108.Resource@nrc.gov, or mail a hardcopy of the questionnaire to Kim Conway, U.S. NRC, 11545 Rockville Pike, Mail Stop T-5 A10, Rockville, MD 20852. Deadline for written comments in mid-November, 2019.

More than 200 environmental organizations have endorsed Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS), a highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel management alternative, during decommissioning. More

NRC ASLB admits single contention in WCS/ISP CISF licensing proceeding

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) has ruled in the Waste Control Specialists/Interim Storage Partners (WCS/ISP) consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) licesning proceeding.

The ASLB has acknowledged legal standing for Beyond Nuclear, Fasken Oil, and Sierra Club. All other intervening parties' legal standing was rejected (namely, a seven-group, national grassroots environmental coalition, represented by Toledo, OH attorney, Terry Lodge).

However, only a single contention by Sierra Club was granted a hearing on the merits. Beyond Nuclear's and Fasken's (represented by Lawrence, KS attorney Robert Eye) contentions, despite acknowledgement of the groups' legal standing, were rejected as not meriting a hearing. Sierra Club is represented by legal counsel Wally Taylor of Cedar Rapids, IA.

See the ASLB ruling, here. See NRC's press release, here.

Most to all opponents to WCS/ISP's CISF -- Beyond Nuclear included -- plan to appeal their rejection by the ASLB within 25 days, to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners themselves, by the NRC's deadline.

Then, if ruled against by the Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners, Beyond Nuclear -- and perhaps other parties as well -- will appeal to the federal courts.

Similar appeals are already underway in the Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance CISF licensing proceeding in New Mexico, just 39 miles from WCS/ISP's Andrews County, West Texas location.

In both the WCS/ISP, TX and the Holtec/ELEA, NM CISF proceedings, Beyond Nuclear's legal counsel are Diane Curran of Harmon Curran in Washington, D.C., and Mindy Goldstein of Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

To learn more, visit our Centralized Storage website section.

Einstein's atomic regrets

On August 2, 1939, Albert Einstein sent a letter that triggered the Manhattan Project to construct atom bombs "before Nazi Germany did. And it led to a widening of nuclear technology and what has been called the 'Atomic Age,'” writes Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, author of several books, and Beyond Nuclear board member.

"Einstein regretted signing the August 2^nd letter and was critical, too, of how atom bombs had led to civilian atomic energy. He also wrote in Out of My Later Years: 'Since I do not foresee that atomic energy is to be a great boon for a long time, I have to say that for the present time it is a menace.'" More