Scarred Lands Videos: Nuclear testing
Your Challenge:
Your challenge is to understand the effect of nuclear testing in the Pacific and the problem of nuclear waste disposal.
Follow this Process:
Access this site Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives site and watch the video listed above plus “The Environmental Impact of Preparations for war”.
Discuss your reaction to these videos with your class. One must be careful not to use the values of today to judge actions in the past. However, do you find the US soldier’s reason for nuclear testing presented to the Bikini Atoll villagers convincing? Would it be acceptable to use animals in the tests these days?
Take this deeper and do some research. Knowing how dangerous nuclear tests in the atmosphere are, would you have been happy to be the NZ representative on this frigate? How do you feel about the NZ stand on this issue? New Zealand has been involved in protesting nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean. For more background see the website Nuclear-free New Zealand – Nuclear testing in the Pacific.
Take action by looking through the The Peace Foundation website and see if this an organisation whose aims you share/agree with. If so, make contact with the organisation and try one of their conflict resolution programmes for schools.
Capture and share your experience with the Peace Foundation Schools Programme with other classes and schools and by commenting on your experience on this website.
Educator Notes
Educators please preview all videos prior to showing your class so you can be sure they are age appropriate.
The powerful videos in this instance should be ideal for developing a classroom discussion with some prompts provided. There some organisations which promote global peace, nuclear disarmament and conflict resolution. There are many significant organisations focus on war history.
To make this more accessible:
I am confident the video will prompt some form of debate! What would have been their reaction to losing their home on bikini atoll?
To make this more challenging:
The second video on preparations raises the problem of disposal of nuclear waste (plutonium which remains radioactive for 48,000 years!). Can you find out if this storage problem has been solved. There have been some interesting suggested solutions. Can you find the weirdest one and report back to the class. This will help start you on the search: Storage and Disposal of Radioactive Waste
Useful links