Although Helen Caldicott (born 1938) started her career as a physician, she is perhaps best known for her anti-nuclear activism and for authoring several books which dealt with the issues around nuclear energy and broader environmental concerns.

Helen Caldicott has always maintained that the United States needs to set an example for the rest of the world in carrying out sound environmental practices. Much of her life was devoted to activism; in earlier years she focused on educating people about the dangers of nuclear energy. In the late 1980s and beyond when the threat of nuclear war had lessened, Caldicott focused on broader environmental issues. She decried the population explosion and corporate practices which harmed the environment. She insisted that the responsibility for sound ethical policy lay with political leaders; and that the media had a role in educating the public about the true extent of the earth's environmental...