The history of WISE - World Information Service on Energy

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 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".

A preparatory group organized a founding meeting in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in February 1978. 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 Communique (only available in English) was also published, inititally as a collection of press releases. Sometimes just two pages, sometimes five or six, it was mailed out as and when needed, not on a regular basis. From 1984 on, the WISE News Communique was published on a regular basis: 20 issues a year.

The Smiling Sun

From January 1978 until 1980, a small slice of the income from the sale of items featuring the Smiling Sun symbol was being used to serve the movement, by helping to finance WISE. The Smiling Sun was designed in April 1975, by a member of the Aarhus group of OOA, the Danish "Organization for Information on Atomic Energy". It was a winner from the start, with badges, stickers, posters, T-shirts selling faster than anyone could have predicted.

The OOA was determined not to let the Smiling Sun be kidnapped, either by party political groups, or by private business. So it has been registered as a trade mark in Denmark and many other countries. WISE still takes care that the logo is not misused for commercial benefits.

WISE still has an amount of smiling sun stickers and batches (several languages). You can see and order them here.