“WISE has long been a voice for reason in the nuclear debate. Now that negawatts and micro power are outproducing nuclear power and growing 20–40 times faster worldwide, raising copious private risk capital while nuclear can't raise a penny, the endgame is already upon us. Thank you for your good work!” Amory B. Lovins, Chairman and Chief Scientist Rocky Mountain Institute Read here more about the history of WISE, what other people say about WISE AND please also read our cry for help!
1. History of WISE In the 1970s, the need for better cross-frontier contact and communication became increasingly obvious to many in the anti-nuclear and safe energy movement. The idea of a newsletter of some kind came up regularly at all the meetings. In the summer of 1977, the idea was discussed in detail by groups attending very different meetings: at a conference on non-violence in Guernavaca (Mexico) and one on "ecology and European elections" in Bergisch-Gladbach (then West Germany). The catalyst was the news that independent funds might be available via the sales of the Smiling Sun symbol (see www.smilingsun.org) A working group was set up, with an informal mandate from the two conferences. Those taking part had all been involved in cross- frontier work, in the energy movement, the non-violent movement or in the alternative press. In November 1977, some 70 people met in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss the project. Many of them signed a "declaration of intent" about setting up a "World Information Service on Energy - WISE". The preparatory group, enlarged, went on working and called a founding meeting in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in February 1978. Every effort was made to invite all the branches of the movement. Nearly 200 people attended, and WISE was formally established. In May 1978 the first issue of the WISE Bulletin, a bimonthly magazine in several languages, was published. The WISE News Communiqué (only available in English) was already existing and was a collection of press releases. Sometimes just two pages, sometimes five or six; it was mailed out if there was need to, not on a regular basis. The WISE Bulletin (first produced in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, later in Washington, USA and then for a while in Oxford, UK) existed until December 1984 and was then totally replaced by the News Communiqué, which became a regular magazine, published 20 times a year. Meanwhile, many versions in different languages of the News Communiqué had seen the light (see WISE; the News Communiqué). In 2001 WISE merged with NIRS and from the year 2002 on the combined newsletter was called the Nuclear Monitor, produced by the Amsterdam team. The English version of the WISE/NIRS Nuclear Monitor is available in paper and email-version (pdf). The NM is posted on our website about two months after publication. To receive it directly you need to subscribe. Since about ten years WISE Amsterdam has 5 staff members. "Since there is hardly any new talent entering the business, nuclear power seems doomed. It will most likely be phased out between the years 2010 and 2020. This will occur slowly, and will therefore never be front-page news. The technology will die out quietly, along with the generation which now defends it. The waste will then be left for future generations as an everlasting monument to, and reminder of, the mistakes of the 20th century industrial society." 2. What others say about us We think the reasons for the founding of WISE are still valid after 30 years: cross-border communications, empowering people, sharing of information. It can well be that nuclear energy is a dinosaur and doomed to extinction. But we have to help them a bit, because they will not give in voluntarily. The time has not yet come to lean backwards and rest.
Dear WISE Although environmental issues become one of major public concerns, nuclear power seems getting upper hand in recent year. Many things like go back to the old days, nuclear proponents use fussy arguments trying to confuse the public and politicians. Only solid facts can dispel these distortions. Thanks you very much WISE for your hard work, and for supporting us in the past. Gloria Kiang-Jung Hsu, Taiwan Environmental Protection Union	Dear Friends Thanks for the excellent publication and for the action you keep carrying out against the idiocy of nuclear business. We must set up a campaign against EDF which is throwing away public money in the madness of the EPR, the acquisition of British Energy and, worst, the acquisition of Constellation. Continue your crusade against the criminality of nuclear business. Fulcieri Maltini FM Consultants Associates, Italy	“We enjoy the Nuclear Monitor - there's usually a fight between myself and the deputy editor to see who gets to read it first! The only people who really know what the global nuclear industry is up to”. Mark Allington, Senior Reporter, The Ecologist
“I have found over the years that the information provided is reliable, scientifically sound and presented in a professional and clear manner…. I do not know of any other publication which can match it for relevance, careful screening, brevity and reliability…” Rosalie Bertell, PhD, GNSH, President of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health, Canada. Recipient of the Right Livelihood Award	“We always appreciate and value the information contained in the Nuclear Monitor about the world outside of Japan. We also would like to pay respect to the staff of WISE for their efforts in maintaining and developing such a professional and powerful organization”. Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, Japan	Hello, All we need is WISE, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, all we need is WISE .... Happy Birthday! Go on for another 30 years... Yours, Georg Löser, President of ECOtrinova e.V. Germany
The WISE Nuclear Monitor is the most informative and worthwhile item I have ever subscribed to, long may it continue. Dr.Paul Griffiths, United Kingdom	Many congratulations to WISE on reaching your 30th anniversary. Campaigning against nuclear power is not as sexy as the days in the 1980s when everyone had a "Nuclear Power? No Thanks" sticker in the back window of their Citroen 2CV. Memories of Chernobyl are fading, and talk of a "nuclear renaissance" distracts attention from the real solutions to the climate crisis and threats to energy security. In these dangerous times, the "nuclear monitor" has become an invaluable source of information for (and from) the international struggle against nuclear power and other links in the deadly nuclear chain. Your tireless campaigning against nuclear power, and for a positive energy future, continue to inspire us, For these reasons, we need WISE more than ever. I look forward to helping you celebrating the end of the nuclear nightmare before you reach 40... David Heller, Friends of the Earth Flanders & Brussels	Hi -- just wanted to pass on that Ned Doyle -- Director of the Southern Energy Environment Expo and close NIRS ally cited the last two Nuclear Monitors (which he called "outstanding") as the basis for his invitation for me to come back on his weekly radio show -- for a two part interview! Mary Olsen, NIRS USA
Earthlife Namibia congratulates you and all staff members of WISE to the 30th anniversary and sends best wishes for the future. Please except a big hug from all Earthlife members. You are doing high-quality and much needed work. I wish to use this opportunity to thank WISE for the excellent and most educational editions of Nuclear Monitor which we receive since many years. The information is of great help to us and strengthens our anti-nuke campaign. I also want to thank you for great assistance – together with SOMO - before, during and after the Namibian conference “Uranium – a blessing or a curse”, organized by Earthlife and LaRRI in November 2008. The effects of the conference bear fruit already by triggering off serious discussions on the nuclear industry and uranium mining. Information about the dangers of uranium spreads and local people are getting more concerned than ever before, hopefully resulting in public resistance towards the nuclear industry. We trust that many more fruitful activities between WISE and Earthlife are in the pipeline and that together we eventually bring the nuclear industry to its knees. Warm regards, Bertchen Kohr for all Earthlife members	I am part of a group which weekly presents an environmental and peace program on the local community radio (3ccc) in central Victoria, Australia, and we regularly base our program on the information so clearly produced by you. We often receive commendations from listeners who are surprised that they are unable to obtain such detailed information from the mainstream media. Pat Finegan, Radio 3ccc, Australia	Anti-nuclear and alternative energy struggles have achieved many victories over the past decades, and it is important to reflect on these to draw inspiration and strength for the next leg of the campaigns. WISE, itself, has much to feel proud of. It has a reputation for being a source of innovation, a virtual think tank which has played an invaluable role in providing the arguments and ideas which have helped achieve many victories across the world. Particularly in The Netherlands, the coordinating center for WISE, it has been midwife to a number of activist groups, and has provided the training ground for some of the best known environmental activists in the country today. The Transnational Institute (TNI) and WISE have had a long-standing relationship. Both are international organizations coordinated from Amsterdam, TNI's traditional focus has been on nuclear weapons and the security establishment, while WISE's has been on nuclear energy and grassroots opposition. TNI extends hearty congratulations to WISE International on the occasion of WISE's anniversary, and looks forward to exploring opportunities for collaboration on anti-nuclear and alternative energy in the future. Fiona Dove, Director, Transnational Institute, Paulus
Happy Birthday, WISE! You began as the ambitious project of a new international social movement. A "world information service on energy" was clearly necessary to counter an industry so entrenched, so powerful, so effective on an international scale. There were so many lies then, as now, lies with an international resonance. We in the US were assured that the nuclear waste problem had been definitively solved in France and Germany. That other countries didn't look the nuclear ‘gift’ horse in the mouth. Through WISE we found out otherwise. We also discovered that information on nuclear dangers we obtained with great difficulty -- from out-spoken experts, daring "whistleblowers" within the industry and building trades, and through the use of the new Freedom of Information Act -- was also extremely useful for communities in other countries trying to keep nuclear facilities at bay. WISE took on its role as "switchboard" for the movement with dedication and determination. WISE supporters know that the nuclear industry profits from international coordination even as its members compete for still-growing markets in Asia or repairs and retrofitting in Eastern Europe. If public opinion in Germany was moving slowly towards support for a phased nuclear shutdown, in Asia the concrete is being poured at new reactor sites. Asians opposing the nuclear juggernaut need the information and international support that WISE can and should provide. Chronically under funded, the news service has been kept alive in recent years by the focused dedication of its staff members and volunteers. It's a bit of a miracle that it has survived these past two decades. But we need WISE in the next millennium, too. Energy decisions are key to development in poor countries and pollution control in industrialized ones. The climatic changes that have already occurred will become more severe if we do not turn away from fossil fuels. We know that atomic fission is no answer. The challenges are great, and so is our need for reliable information, rapid communication and international coordination. Thus WISE is needed now more than ever. Anna Gyorgy, Author of No Nukes, everyone’s guide to nuclear power. USA/Germany
3. Help us As pointed out by Anna Gyorgy (read her text) WISE is chronically under funded. We have 5 paid staff and we depend largely on small donations and project grants. Please help us with a special extra anniversary gift. Your money will be spent on the following campaign this year; “Uranium – a blessing or a curse” in which we will support groups in African countries fighting the powers of large uranium-mining companies plundering Africa. We will provide necessary information, bring people together, publish papers, start a full-campaign oriented web section, organise actions against the companies in their homelands and support actions in Africa itself. There are several (safe) ways of sending us money, see donations. Plse. also consider subscribing to the Nuclear Monitor, 100 euro’s for 20 issues (paper) or 50 euro’s for the pdf version (also 20 issues) Follow this link. We also wish to thank all people fighting against nuclear energy, nuclear weapons and the proliferation of nuclear technology. It doesn't matter if you are a lobbyist, a scientist, a publicist or an activist, all these forms are equally important.

 

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