For immediate release November 2, 2021

Join the Los Alamos Study Group on Friday, Nov. 5th, east side of State Capitol, 12:00 to 5:00 pm for a demonstration, plenary workshops, and dialogue

Reclaim resources, build resilient communities -- not plutonium bombs

Contact: 505-265-1200 office; Trish Williams-Mello, 505-577-3366 cell; Greg Mello, 505-577-8563 cell

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Albuquerque, NM -- Please join the Los Alamos Study Group, other organizations, and members of the public on Friday, Nov. 5th, on the southeast side of the New Mexico State Capitol from 12:00 to 5:00 pm for a demonstration, plenary workshops, and dialogue.

We will have some outstanding speakers -- including, in the first half hour, Rep. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, one of our state's bravest and best environmental legislators.

Introductory remarks will be followed by a live performance of Albinoni's "Adagio in G minor," which we hope will help set a reflective tone for the workshops that follow.

Then, we have truly great workshop speakers (virtually) lined up, including:

• Dr. Ugo Bardi in Florence, Italy who will speak on the broad resource problems we face.
  

• Dr. Antonio Turiel in Barcelona, Spain will speak on the problems of hydrogen.

Later, at 3:00 pm, we have

• David Spratt (@djspratt) from Climate Code Red in Australia, one of the most knowledgeable and best climate communicators in the world, who will speak on the gross inadequacy and deceptions involved in the "net zero by 2050" (NZ2050) emissions goal.

There will be at least five other local speakers/workshop leaders. There will be plenty of time for questions, comments, and discussion.

The nuclear weapons portion of the event will commence at 3:40 pm.

From 4:30 to 5:00 pm there will be a press conference and event summary, and further comments from citizens if there is time.

This event proceeds, in part, on the premise that "green" climate, environmental, and social priorities are incompatible -- in New Mexico, nationally, and globally -- with the new nuclear arms race and the increasing posture of threats emanating from U.S. leaders.

The crash program at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to build a factory for plutonium warhead cores ("pits"), which reliable sources say that LANL now estimates will cost $18 billion over this decade, is an intrinsic part of the nuclear threat complex.

By way of comparison, this sum could supply enough solar equipment to equip every household in New Mexico with a 4 kW solar PV generating system -- three times over. Tens of thousands of skilled people could be trained and hired to bring about the energy transition we need.

Each pit built in the 2020s at LANL will cost at least $80 million, a grotesque sum in this poor state, which lacks enough teachers and medical personnel.

And as we have argued many times over the past 30 years, and as 70 years of data show, nuclear weapons expenditures do not produce good economic or social outcomes.

That said, the "center of gravity" of this event lies with climate, energy, and resource issues. We are concerned that some (not all) of the approaches to the converging crises we face now being adopted in our state, or about to be adopted, will disadvantage vulnerable communities and people, have already been proven technically or economically infeasible, and/or are likely to have net negative climate and environmental impacts.

We are concerned that the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from oil and gas -- the products, not the leaks -- have been "off the table" in New Mexico GHG goals and accounting.

We are concerned that crucial opportunities for community resilience, job creation, and a higher quality of life are being lost by looking at climate issues through a technocratic, corporate-profit, neo-liberal lens, rather than what is best for people and communities.

In general, we believe local, small-scale, democratic ownership and control will bring better outcomes -- environmentally, economically, and socially.

We see an alarming "democracy deficit" that is affecting the validity and wisdom of the technical and political decisions being made. Small, unaccountable groups meeting behind closed doors are establishing policies that will substantially determine the entire future of the state.

We believe the recently-announced "net zero by 2050" goal is much worse than useless. 

Citizen dialogue about these issues is virtually nonexistent. We had hoped to participate in discussions at the recent New Mexico House Speakers' Climate Conference but there was no dialogue.

As far as we know there have been no articles in the press examining the environmental, climate, and (with a few exceptions) the social justice premises, and in some cases the technical viability, of "environmental" policies such as:

• the full electrification of transport and buildings, now widely promoted;
  
• centralized industrial-scale renewable energy (RE), often built to supply long-distance transmission lines to support "brown" growth in other states, or server farms built in NM to access subsidized RE power;
  
• "100%" RE at present consumption levels;
  
• "'green" hydrogen ("blue" hydrogen has thankfully been critiqued); and as noted
  
• the “net zero 2050” (NZ2050) emissions goal.

The necessity of conservation of resources and energy is never discussed, including at the aforementioned climate conference -- or at least up to 3:00 pm on the first day, when we walked out. The energy and materials embodied in new infrastructure is never discussed.

Part of the problem is that the actual gravity of the climate crisis is never mentioned -- and apparently, not grasped -- by the most important actors and opinion leaders in the state. Admittedly, it is hard.

In our opinion, this creates a profoundly unhealthy cultural atmosphere -- an almost psychotic break with reality, likely to have dire indirect consequences -- as well as bad policy choices.

We hope you will join us to discuss these issues.

***ENDS***