Peace with the Planet

Abstract

This chapter traces the coalescence between pacifist and environmental concerns around the issue of nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and early 1960s in the West. Scientists, health professionals, educators, and middle-class families grew increasingly concerned about the health hazards of fallout from nuclear testing. They built a grassroots movement that transcended the traditional Cold War divisions and ignored political warnings about the need for nuclear deterrence against the communist threat. Clean soil, clean air, and clean food, as well as the health of current and future generations of children, were at stake, making the cost of defense against an abstract communist enemy too high a price to pay for many. The struggle for peace thus expanded from political-ideological to the medical-environmental realm.