Damage to the Pacific
Another cause of the strikes for many especially from the view point of Greenpeace, that the environment factor played a huge part. The nuclear
testing's carried out by the French and the United States had done considerable damage to the Atolls that had been tested on, as well as the atmosphere from the atmospheric tests.
testing's carried out by the French and the United States had done considerable damage to the Atolls that had been tested on, as well as the atmosphere from the atmospheric tests.
Damage to Mururoa and Fangataufa
The French testing of nuclear warheads in the Pacific were conducted at the French Polynesian Atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa. These atolls were the largest coral reefs in that area. Of the 166 warheads 44 of them were atmospheric, 39 were conducted at Mururoa and the other 5 at Fangataufa between 1966 and 1990. The power of these explosion s was estimated to be at 2,500 kilotons of TNT. Even though United Sates sources say President John .F. Kennedy offered to help the French with their nuclear advancements as long as they stopped atmospheric testing, it is still unsure. Most of the monitoring conducted in the French region was mostly all on the News Zealand's behalf, through the National Radiation Laboratory of the New Zealand Department of Health. They were tasked with the job of monitoring the meteorological changes in the islands to see what effects the atmospheric testing had. In the end the measurements showed that the fission by products of the tests were expected to circle the globe in an easterly direction, before coming back full circle to the Pacific, this was a period of around 3 weeks. Along with this was the alarming rapid changes in the concentration of radioactivity in the days that followed a nuclear test. Environmental effects of atmospheric testing by the French resulted in the enriched plutonium-239 from the 45 tests conducted. It is thought that 6750 'curies' were produced, and around 1.7 million curies were produced, and that about half of that number is left of caesium and strontium residue in the atmosphere.
"The Curie (symbol Ci) is a non-SI unit of radioactivity" :- Sourced on 24/09/13/ from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curie
The atmospheric testing is also thought to have contributed to a lot of the breaking down of the ozone layer through the repeated circumnavigation of the globe by the radioactive material.
Underground tests are also said to be responsible for landslides in the Mururoa Atoll, and the consequent tsunami on July 25, 1979. The explosion of the 120kiloton weapon at 400 metres in stead of 800m dislodged at least 1 million cubic metres of coral rock. However at the time the French authorities denied any such wrong doings or happenings. The Mururoa atoll was comprised mostly of limestone on top of clay, and covered with coral and reef carbonates, but the was up heaved due to the testing's caused.
Even though their were no direct inhabitants on the islands of Mururoa and Fangataufa, those that inhabited the other islands in French Polynesia were displaced because of the nuclear material. This was evident in people who lived far away like in Tahiti where in 1974 test, code named Centaur, dumped 500 times the maximum allowed level of plutonium fallout on them, 1250 kilometres away, this illegality went un-punished, and people suffered. This happened despite the fact that in 1973 the HMNZS Canterbury and Otago were sent by the New Zealand Labour government to monitor the radiation.
As a result the New Zealand public began to turn against the super power states as anti nuclear fever metastasized across New Zealand.
Damage done to the Marshall Islands and Marshallese people
The damage that affected the Marshallese people on the Marshall islands was astounding. The people were treated as guinea pigs for experiments to see how badly they had been affected by the radiation showers that fell upon them. This was known as Project 4.1 and was a medical study to test the effects of the poisoning of the bigger blasts. Many of the Marshall Islands citizens were affected by the nuclear either by its affects on people or the land they lived on. For instance the land that was tested on with weapons as well as the other nearby islands were affected through the dying of coconut trees and food crops soon became unsafe to eat. "We'd get a few fish, then the entire community would have to share this meagre amount... The fish were not fit to eat there. They were poisonous because of what they ate on the reef. We got sick from them, like when your arms and legs fall asleep and you can't feel anything. We'd get up in the morning to go to our canoes and fall over because we were so ill... Then we started asking these men from America [to] bring us food... We were dying, but they didn't listen to us." :- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini_Atoll
Despite the fact that the US Army displaced the Marshallese people to different Atolls the effects were still felt through the shakes and disruption to daily life. As a result of this continuous testing some of the land that was around the atolls began to give way with subsidence. The Bikini Atoll despite its displaced people, have had 139 inhabitants return to the island, but have tried to bring the United States Government in 1970. Despite this return they had to leave again because of radioactive testing's, and were once again forced back to the Kili and Ejit Islands.
Also like the French the United States extensive testing on the atolls also resulted in the circumnavigation of nuclear material, most of which came from the biggest tests like the Yankee and Bravo test.
Despite the fact that the US Army displaced the Marshallese people to different Atolls the effects were still felt through the shakes and disruption to daily life. As a result of this continuous testing some of the land that was around the atolls began to give way with subsidence. The Bikini Atoll despite its displaced people, have had 139 inhabitants return to the island, but have tried to bring the United States Government in 1970. Despite this return they had to leave again because of radioactive testing's, and were once again forced back to the Kili and Ejit Islands.
Also like the French the United States extensive testing on the atolls also resulted in the circumnavigation of nuclear material, most of which came from the biggest tests like the Yankee and Bravo test.
Key Historical Idea
The key historical idea surrounding the damage to human life and the environment is that the New Zealand public strongly believed that the tests should stop as the nuclear tests were destroying islands inhabitants, their way of life and their heritage that took them back to their family's past. In relation to New Zealand we believed that the use of nuclear weapons would destroy everything beautiful about our environment should testing occur, along with this were the horror tales of the Babies being born in the Marshall Islands with birth defects, all together the New Zealand culture movement of anti nuclear began to permeate especially amongst the unions who were crucial to the protest movement and were always at its forefront. New Zealand as a country who took pride in the beauty that it held in its own country did not want the effects of nuclear material tainting our land, this was a major part of our protests which came through the revealing of nuclear waste dumping by the British in the North Sea, and led to the continued effort to stop the arrival of American ships who might dump waste in our clean waters.