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August 24, 2017

Marshall Islands' Politician, Climate & Anti-Nuclear Activist Tony de Brum Dies
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And in the Marshall Islands, the longtime political leader and
anti-nuclear activist Tony de Brum has died at the age of 72. De Brum
helped organize for his country's independence from the United States
and went on to serve in a number of top political positions during his
50-year career in government. He was one of the world's most prominent
voices confronting climate change, which threatens the future of the
Marshall Islands. He also spent decades organizing against nuclear
weapons, after having witnessed firsthand the United States' nuclear
testing on his homeland. This is Tony de Brum, speaking in 2015 as he
accepted the Right Livelihood Award, known as the alternative Nobel
Peace Prize.

Tony de Brum: "Decades after the world experienced the heightened
threats of the cold war, and decades after the conclusion of devastating
nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, I might be branded by some as a
radical for my impassioned conviction against the use, testing or
possession of nuclear weapons. But this is not radical. It is only
logical. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 67 large
scale nuclear tests in Marshall Islands. That is the equivalence of 1.6
hiroshima shots every day for 12 years."

Tony de Brum died Tuesday in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall
Islands.


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