Outrider Foundation’s Post

Hi All, a quick update from Outrider HQ: This week, The New York Times debuted “At the Brink,” a groundbreaking new multimedia series about nuclear weapons. Outrider Foundation and our partners at the Carnegie Corporation of New York and The Prospect Hill Foundation are supporting this limited series. Outrider’s fellow, W.J. Hennigan, is leading the project. You can read more here: https://lnkd.in/gMPq6M7C The public’s understanding of nuclear security and its impacts on the world stage is vital. The “At the Brink” series will provide essential analysis and perspectives at this critical moment in history. We want more people to read these pieces. If it makes sense, please share them in your networks. Thanks for looking!

The message to #NATO from President Vladimir Putin was simple and stark: Don’t go too far in providing military support for Ukraine, or you’ll risk a conflict with Russia that could quickly turn nuclear. https://bit.ly/4f1jOxO As the war in Ukraine turns slowly in Moscow’s favor, Putin declared he doesn’t need nuclear weapons to achieve his goals. But he also says it’s wrong for the West to assume that Russia will never use them. “It mustn’t be treated in a light, superficial way,” Putin said in June, reaffirming that Russia’s nuclear doctrine calls for using atomic weapons if it perceives a threat to its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Moscow’s #nuclearweapons messaging heralds what could become the most dangerous phase in the war. Newly published in our Nuclear Landscape Project with The Associated Press →

#Nuclear weapons are the most destructive weapons on the planet. What would it look like in your city? 👀 From fireball and shock wave, radiation to heat, understand how a nuclear detonation affects an area through our interactive tool. https://lnkd.in/gsYVceZv

Islands are eyeing ocean #thermalenergy conversion to power their future and combat #climatechange. 🔋🏝️ https://bit.ly/3LdrsYi Like many of the world’s 57 small island developing nations and territories — a list that includes Puerto Rico, Barbados, and Jamaica — the economically challenged African country of São Tomé and Príncipe has an #energy problem. The tiny archipelago nation to the west of Africa must produce electricity for the 200,000 residents who rely almost entirely on heavily polluting diesel fuel. “Our power generation is 95% from diesel — and we have to import it,” said Gabriel Lima Maquengo, Energy Director for Sao Tome and Prince’s Ministry of Infrastructure, Natural Resources, and Environment. Interest in the long-neglected #carbon-free technology fueled by ocean water is rising, especially with new designs and Shell Oil’s Marine Renewable Program on board.

“The thing is awful. It is terrifying. Unless man does something to regulate it, and regulate it soon, there is a possibility, yes a probability, that mankind will just destroy itself.” https://bit.ly/3Lgocvd Wayne Guthrie was selected as one of the reporters to observe the atomic tests at Bikini — a site that saw twenty-three #nuclear tests between 1946 and 1958. What began as an assignment evolved into a passion for educating about the dangers of #nuclearweapons. Thinking about a future with weapons that could unleash a blast of heat at its core 10,000 times hotter than the sun’s surface, Guthrie decided to do what he could to enlighten the public. He delivered his first speech about the Bikini tests to about a hundred of his neighbors on North Audubon Street in Indianapolis. Guthrie presented his “Ringside at Bikini” talk, described by one attendee as “a most powerful sermon on world peace,” more than 800 times in thirty-one states to audiences as large as 12,000.

We partner with creators, thought leaders, and news organizations to explain how smart policy can sustain a safe and livable planet. 🌍 https://lnkd.in/gJVN7c7F Meet Outrider fellows from major media outlets — like Inside Climate News, The New York Times, TIME and Science Friday — who are expanding public dialogue and education about #nuclear threats and #climatechange.

Every week, we publish stories that explain how smart U.S. policy can sustain a safe and livable planet. 🌎 Read our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gCVGW9MZ

Islands are eyeing ocean thermal energy conversion to power their future and combat #climatechange. 🔋🏝️ https://bit.ly/3LdrsYi Like many of the world’s 57 small island developing nations and territories — a list that includes Puerto Rico, Barbados, and Jamaica — the economically challenged African country of São Tomé and Príncipe has an #energy problem. The tiny archipelago nation to the west of Africa must produce electricity for the 200,000 residents who rely almost entirely on heavily polluting diesel fuel. “Our power generation is 95% from diesel — and we have to import it,” said Gabriel Lima Maquengo, Energy Director for Sao Tome and Prince’s Ministry of Infrastructure, Natural Resources, and #Environment. Interest in the long-neglected #carbon-free technology fueled by ocean water is rising, especially with new designs and Shell Oil’s Marine Renewable Program on board.

The victims of U.S. #nuclear testing deserve more. https://bit.ly/4csgtpC They call themselves downwinders — a global community of people who lived near nuclear testing sites. In America, more than 100 nuclear devices were exploded in aboveground tests in New Mexico and Nevada from 1945 to 1962. For decades, members of the communities near those sites, as well as others involved in weapons production, have endured rare cancers, autoimmune disorders and other illnesses. But only some have been compensated by the federal government for what they’ve gone through. The men and women came to Capitol Hill in May 2024, bearing surgical scars, long medical histories and fading photographs of loved ones long dead. They came from across the country to walk the halls of Congress and show lawmakers the human cost of the U.S. nuclear weapons program. Read the The New York Times Opinion piece from WJ Hennigan.