Connecting The Dots With A Global Environmental Antiwar Perspective

I'm excited to welcome Koohan Paik-Mander to Brunswick, Maine this weekend. She and I are both on the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (GN) board together, but we've not met in person. This is typical of the GN as its directors, advisors, and members are found around the world e.g. South Korea, India, Japan, Russia, Sweden, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, and U.S. 

Where there is military degradation of the environment, including space and the planet's oceans, GN's  members are paying attention and reporting back, as well as often organizing resistance locally to military bases, rocket launch sites, and colonizer warmongering.

From Hawai'i, Koohan focuses on the oceans we all share. I got to know her better when we collaborated on a webinar during the 2021 People's Summit for Climate Justice at COP26  organized by Veterans for Peace. 

She's also been reporting from the U.S. war on China beat for a while now.

I've learned a lot from Koohan, a journalist who is also a strong researcher (remember when the two went hand in hand?). She wrote to me last fall when warplane jet fuel leaking into drinking water in Hawai'i was getting a lot of attention from environmental activists:

Even though the military is Hawaii's biggest economic driver after tourism, the preparation for war with China is tangibly scary, even for the rah-rah corporate media. When the local community saw that the Pentagon has been more than willing to forego safe drinking water from Oahu's only aquifer in order to push for war, articles started to appear that were more realistically critical. 

I'm glad the Global Network is here to connect these articles with you and others.

A big benefit of GN membership is the curated news feed. Koohan shared the photo above with us in November, 2022 and commented:

Aloha Friends,

We were overjoyed this morning by this sight. 

This photo was taken the first night of the first eruption since 1984 from the world's largest live volcano. Apparently, Madame Pele, the Fire Goddess, has decided that it's EVICTION TIME for the U.S. military. 

The 125,000-square-mile Pohakuloa Training Area is the largest live-fire training ground in the Pacific"

 

Despite the fact that its lease (for the whopping sum of $1.00) expires in 2029, some believe Pohakuloa might become the site of a U.S. Space Force base. Stay tuned for more on that.

If you're lucky enough to be in Maine, join us Sunday August 13 in Brunswick at the Curtis Memorial Library from 4-6pm. Light refreshments and an opportunity to hear from Koohan Paik-Mander, a unique and dedicated defender of the oceans!