Crossroads 2020
Our world is at the most critical crossroads ever. Important decisions must be made immediately if there is any chance to save and preserve what will be left.
There is no such thing as “local” anymore — ALL ACTIONS ARE GLOBAL. The world entered into this new epoch called the Anthropocene in the late 1930s when the petroleum molecule was cracked and the atom was split. Both of these events have created the world that we are living in today.
CROSSROADS2020 is an ambitious multimedia and multidiscipline approach to expose and link our Nuclear Legacy to Climate Change: the two most powerful existential threats to all life and how both are inextricably linked…
To accomplish this, CR2020 is creating a vast mosaic by weaving together the different stories and elements related to nuclear and climate so that all of us can realize how we intersect with one another. For far too long, the powers that be have managed to keep these stories separate to create false fantasies that these are simply “local” issues.
There is no such thing as “local” anymore…
We (the world) must come to the realization that life, as it exists on our planet, is the crown jewel in this vast universe. As of this moment, we know of no other planet like ours. Yet, we are rapidly approaching a point of no return that is of our own creation and once crossed, will no doubt lead to the demise of life across the entire spectrum, including ourselves.
Climate Change is real and happening now. Even if we stopped the causes today, Climate Change will go on for centuries. We are witnessing the extinction of many species. The Great Barrier Reef is rapidly dying. Antarctica and Greenland are melting.
The oceans are rising and low lying nations and lands are going to disappear in a matter of decades.
We remain under the threat of nuclear annihilation. The U.S.A. and Russia are planning to revamp and increase their nuclear arsenals. If this happens, it will ignite a new global arms race.
CR2020 is creating an important platform for all to bear witness as to what is unfolding – to shine the right sort of light and to spread the right sort word so that collectively we can figure out a sane and humane path to save and preserve all cultures and life before it is too late…we are so very close and need to act now!
ALL ACTIONS ARE GLOBAL — CROSSROADS2020
Brian Cowden
Crossroads2020
2017-2018 were very important years for the development of CR2020’s long term goal to create a multi-media platform to present and illustrate the connection of the Nuclear Legacy to Climate Change. These two issues are the biggest challenges facing life on this planet — both are the result of the hubris of industrialization.
In these past two years, there were two trips to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. These trips were coordinated in conjunction with Living Islands’ ongoing projects in the region.
On the first trip, important working contacts were established. Living Islands’ coordination was instrumental for CR2020 to secure Tony deBrum’s final interview. This was truly a bittersweet great honor.
On the second, in 2018, CR2020 made the journey along with Mike Halferty the Senator of Arno Atoll to Enewetak Atoll where the United States tested 43 of its largest nuclear weapons. CR2020 journeyed to Runit Dome one of the most radioactively toxic places on the planet which is poised to become a global environmental catastrophe when it is covered by the rising oceans due to Climate Change in a mere few decades.
2017-2018, CR2020 continued recording and cataloging the stories of Atomic Veterans, the military personnel who witnessed the testing atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons.
In May 2018, CR2020 attended and filmed the 1 st international conference of Atomic Veterans. In attendance were veterans from the United States, Great Britain, and France. CR2020’s goal is to collect the stories of all who participated in the nuclear tests; military and civilian.
October 2018, CR2020 went to the Navajo reservation to begin making contacts with the Native People who mined the uranium that went into nuclear weapons during the Cold War. This uranium mining also devastated the local environment and the health of the miners and their families.
2017-2018 were great development years for CR2020. Tho not as much was accomplished as had been hoped for.
Brian Cowden
Crossroads2020