Helen Caldicott Quotes

Sometimes it's appropriate to scream at them.

— Helen Caldicott

Patriotism is nationalism, and always leads to war.

— Helen Caldicott

“Teachers, I believe, are the most responsible and important members of society because their professional efforts affect the fate of the earth.”

— Helen Caldicott

“If the corporations have their way, the Earth will be killed, and that's in your lifetime. It's revolting to me that students are being trained to work in corporations. It's obscene to me that the corporations are running the world. We've got to get cross. Anger is an appropriate emotion.”

— Helen Caldicott

“You're going to have to change the priorities of your life, if you love this planet.”

— Helen Caldicott

“The future of our children is a trust we have been given. To conserve and grow, not to squander wastefully on needless excesses. The earth is a trust, to protect and to honor. Our home, our livelihood, our future rests in the quality of our stewardship. Let us become better stewards.”

— Helen Caldicott

As a physician, I see the earth as a patient in the intensive care unit. We have an acute clinical crisis on our hands and must take urgent action. My prescription for survival is that the American people rise up as they did in the 1980s, when 80 percent of Americans supported the nuclear weapons freeze.

— Helen Caldicott

The power of an aroused public is unbeatable.

— Helen Caldicott

“As a physician I examine the dying planet as I do a dying patient. The earth has a natural system of interacting homeostatic mechanisms similar to the human body's. If one system is diseased, like the ozone layer, then other systems develop abnormalities in function - the crops will die, the plankton will be damaged, and the eyes of all creatures on the planet will become diseased and vision impaired.”

— Helen Caldicott

“The problem with addicted people, communities, corporations, or countries is that they tend to lie, cheat, or steal to get their 'fix.' Corporations are addicted to profit and governments to power ...”

— Helen Caldicott

“If you inhale a millionth of a gram of plutonium, the surrounding cells receive a very, very high dose. Most die within that area, because it's an alpha emitter. The cells on the periphery remain viable. They mutate, and the regulatory genes are damaged. Years later, that person develops cancer. Now, that's true for radioactive iodine, that goes to the thyroid; cesium-137, that goes to the brain and muscles; strontium-90 goes to bone, causing bone cancer and leukemia.”

— Helen Caldicott

“Terrorists do not actually need nuclear weapons. They have been conveniently supplied with 103 nuclear power plants scattered throughout the United States (438 of these deadly facilities exist throughout the world). A planned meltdown at one of these facilities would make the World Trade Center attacks seem like child's play. The massive concrete containers protecting the reactors are not strong enough to withstand the impact of a jumbo jet.”

— Helen Caldicott

“The massive quantities of radiation that would be released in a war fought with nuclear weapons might, over time, cause such great changes in the human gene pool that following generations might not be recognizable as human beings.”

— Helen Caldicott

“Every time you turn on an electric light, you are making another brainless baby.”

— Helen Caldicott

“On one hand, I'm an optimistic pessimist. On the other, I'm a pessimistic optimist. But while there's life, there's still hope, and I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if I didn't think there was still hope.”

— Helen Caldicott

“It is clear to me that unless we connect directly with the earth, we will not have the faintest clue why we should save it.”

— Helen Caldicott

“Politics is not really politics any more. It is run, for the most part, by Madison Avenue advertising firms, who sell politicians to the public the way they sell bars of soap or cans of beer.”

— Helen Caldicott

“Nuclear industry proponents often assert that low doses of radiation (eg below 100mSV) produce no ill effects and are therefore safe. But , as the US National Academy of Sciences BEIR VII report has concluded, no dose of radiation is safe, however small, including background radiation; exposure is cumulative and adds to an individual's risk of developing cancer.”

— Helen Caldicott

“As a doctor, as well as a mother and a world citizen, I wish to practice the ultimate form of preventive medicine by ridding the earth of these technologies that propagate disease, suffering, and death.”

— Helen Caldicott

“I have witnessed the takeover of my world by plastic.”

— Helen Caldicott

“We are the curators of life on earth. We hold it in the palm of our hand.”

— Helen Caldicott

“In terms of the biology of the planet, development is a euphemism for destruction.”

— Helen Caldicott

“The whole world is being 'deculturalized' into a uniform 'Coca-Cola society,' wanting and needing an American way of life.”

— Helen Caldicott

“The U.S. population, a mere four or five percent of the world total, creates half the world's toxic waste.”

— Helen Caldicott

“Cuba is a wonderful country. What Castro's done is superb.”

— Helen Caldicott

“Capitalism is destroying the earth.”

— Helen Caldicott