If you ever doubted that a small group of women can change the world, you won't after you've heard this story. Hundreds of women in Finland have pledged not to bear children for the next four years unless their country's parliament nixes plans for a fifth nuclear power plant there. In making this commitment, these women have truly put their wombs where their ideals are.
The protest, which has taken the form of an Internet petition, is especially powerful because it addresses a social problem with multi-generational implications in a multi-generational way. There's a real danger that years from now, when children born today have grown, the question of where to put waste from the proposed plant -- as well as the four already in existence -- will still be waiting for an answer.
A similar Finnish campaign against nuclear power succeeded in 1986, when 4,000 Finns signed a petition to block another nuclear power plant. Finland is almost alone in Europe in embracing nuclear power; other countries (notably Germany) are phasing out their nuclear plants in favor of conventional and renewable alternatives.
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