Nuclear Threats to the Bay Area
- Title:
- Nuclear Threats to the Bay Area
- Alternate Title:
- Nuclear Threats to the Bay Area
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Pelican Alliance for Safe Energy
- Date:
- 1981
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2422.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2422_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1960 - Present
- Subject:
- Communism & Cold War
Disaster/Health/Environment - Measurement:
- 25 x 40 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This poster map alerted - and perhaps alarmed - residents of the San Francisco Bay Area over the "Nuclear Threats" surrounding them. The text details the "chances . . . you live in a nuclear neighborhood," with numerous facilities "just around the corner . . . which handle radioactive materials." The map's Key identifies threats from "Handlers of Radioactive Materials," aircraft, warships, nuclear reactors, and dump sites. Earthquake fault lines and transportation routes are delineated.
Because "large quantities of these materials are secretly and routinely transported by air, sea and land, . . . some of this radioactive poison escapes and ends up close to home" or "secretly dumped . . . only 30 miles from San Francisco Beaches." The nearby Rancho Seco nuclear power plant "has reported more than 40 mishaps" and the Lawrence Livermore Lab in Oakland has suffered "at least 12 nuclear accidents." And "as if this wasn't enough," the Bay Area is "a prime target for nuclear attack" from Soviet missiles.
"But there is a way out," the text concludes: "Responsible people are organizing now to create a Nuclear Free Zone in the San Francisco Bay Area." The map was produced by the Pelican Alliance for Safe Energy, an organization active in the anti-nuclear movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s. For another map along the same lines, see ID #1393, "Accident" (1984), opposing the basing of nuclear warships on Staten Island in New York City.
The map uses an unusual color scheme: blue for land and green for sea, reversing the conventional choices. Whether or not the change was intentional, the result is unsettling to one familiar with map standards, and may lead the curious viewer to devote more attention than would otherwise be the case.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.