Behind The Nuclear Agenda – An Insider Perspective

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

“The United States will continue to make clear that it reserves the right to respond with overwhelming force – including through resort to all of our options – to the use of weapons of mass destruction against the United States, our forces abroad, and friends and allies.” ~ US National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction

While humanity remains confused and in fear because of the continued ‘War On Terror’, some of the world’s leaders have taken steps to terrorize humanity even further. The policy above was announced as part of the US National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction in December 2002, and to this day, that statement remains a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy. The document not only threatens nuclear retaliation to attacks on the U.S. but it goes even further to include preemptive strikes in so-called “appropriate” cases.

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“Because deterrence may not succeed, and because of the potentially devastating consequences of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) use against our forces and civilian population, U.S. military forces and appropriate civilian agencies must have the capability to defend against WMD-armed adversaries, including in appropriate cases through preemptive measures.”

Democratic principles were severely undermined when David Welsh, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, elaborated on the policy of preemtive strikes in 2002, declaring that “The United States is ready to launch a unilateral war against Iraq if necessary and without recourse to the UN Security Council.” U.S. officials — including former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta — have maintained this stance into recent days, repeating warnings that the U.S. is fully prepared to attack Iran.

Have we become so mad?

Elaborating on the potentially devastating consequences of WMD’s, retired Senator Alan Cranston wrote in 1999:

“One super bomb could now [let] loose more destructive energy than all that has been released from all weapons fired in all wars in all history. The power of self-extinction is now in our uncertain hands… It is more likely now than it was during the more stable days of the Cold War that weapons of mass destruction will be used.”

In wielding that power of self-extinction, the United States has increased homeland security spending by more than $1 trillion since 2001, and specifically, weapons of mass destruction have cost U.S. taxpayers over $5 trillion so far. They presently cost $37 billion a year, diverting money from other critical needs. Is it worthy of a nation to base its security on terror, on the threat to annihilate millions of innocent humans, on the threat of genocide? Is the policy of Mutual Assured Destruction – a policy that puts the human race at risk of extinction – worthy of civilization itself?

Some advocates of nuclear armament are saying, “Do not worry, we are in control. Weapons of mass destruction will never be used.” But most people deny the fact that insiders speak of “when”, while outsiders speak of “if”. Which should we believe? We do not want to believe the insiders, but my destiny was such that I became an insider, working to maintain nuclear weaponry in a classified position at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LNLL) in California. I soon realized that environmental and nuclear non-proliferation work was an illusion, and that purely academic projects are sustained in order to lure well-intentioned young scientists into the national labs and then steer them into weapons development programs.

Therefore, today I speak as an informed insider, as do many others who bravely stand for peace instead of war. These are voices that must be heard. If we continue on the same path we are now on, it is just a matter of a short time until we see the devastation that people have prophesied for thousands of years, and have been truly afraid of for less than 60 years. Let us wake up before our leaders bring us the agonizing death that many seers of the past have long predicted.

Nuclear Weapons: Abolish or Perish

Albert Einstein once said: “This basic force of the universe cannot be fitted into the outmoded concept of narrow nationalisms”.

The splitting of the atom brought a new realization: that if war and science continue to coexist, life will not exist for much longer. What do we hear today in the news in regard to world peace? We hear about national secrets, national defense, national security, and national interests. We also hear about arms control. Who are the ones that must control their arms? Are they not the ones who build them and sell them in the first place?

Let us put things into perspective; War resistance does not mean rearmament; it means disarmament. That is especially what the last World War has taught humanity. Great thinkers and peace advocates in 1934, affected by fear, did not follow the path of wisdom, and they started advocating rearmament. Today, the outcome of this kind of thinking is self-evident.

Although everyone realizes that, given the present state of affairs, any military conflict can very well lead to universal destruction, governments still will not adopt an attitude of goodwill and understanding. Instead, they continue to pursue a policies of domination and mutual threat.

The extent of this threat was described by retired Air Force General Lee Butler, former Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Strategic Command, in an address to the National Press Club on February 1998:

“I was responsible for war plans with more than 12,000 targets, many to be struck with repeated nuclear blows, some to the point of complete absurdity. … And in the end, I came away from it all with profound misgivings and with a set of deeply unsettling judgments: That from the earliest days of the nuclear era, the risks and consequences of nuclear war have never been properly weighed by those who brandished it; that the stakes engage not just the survival of the antagonists, but the fate of humankind…

“Their effects transcend time and place, poisoning the Earth and deforming its inhabitants for generation upon generation. They leave us wholly without defense, expunge all hope for meaningful survival. They hold in their sway not just the fate of nations but the very meaning of civilization…

“At worst it invokes death on a scale rivaling the power of the Creator… It is time to reassert the primacy of individual conscience, the voice of reason, and the rightful interests of humanity.”

General Lee Butler’s address can be found in its entirety here. Unfortunately, just like Senator Alan Cranston, General Lee Butler spoke in this way only after he retired, as is so often the case.

Capital colonialism

Today, “the rightful interests of humanity” that General Lee Butler referred to have been compromised. The spirit of democracy and transparent governance that was born in ancient Greece and which later spread to the whole continent of Europe and beyond – the spirit of personal liberty and respect for the rights of the individual – is in great danger today. The basis of a dignified human existence is endangered by forces which seek to destroy freedom and human dignity for power and profit, while hiding the truth of our current world situation behind the protection of a security fence.

Modern leaders have at their disposal far greater technological means for inflicting violence, as well as psychological weapons such as TV, the internet, radio, press, schools, and the work place against which ordinary citizens are defenseless. And it is in the minds of people that the rise or fall of a nation begins. Einstein said that modern despotism does not lie in the fact that one man with virtually unlimited authority holds power, but that society itself has become an instrument for enslaving the individual.

How are free humans converted into slaves by the state? An enormous number of laws in civil life and militaristic rules in the workplace have reduced citizens in Western countries to helpless victims of society and its economy, without a will of their own. They demand that citizens give automatic and unquestioning obedience to their ‘superiors’ if they want to keep their positions. And the tragic outcome of this modern way of life is the total loss of personal liberty and human dignity – a loss that shifts power and sovereignty from individuals to institutions.

However, the despotism that is so evident in the U.S. and other nations is not contained within their own borders. In the modern era, a new form of imperialism has emerged. Working through the means of financial and military extortion, it seeks to enslaves weaker nations, making them dependent on the U.S. (and beholden to U.S. interests) while sacrificing their natural resources, environment and political sovereignty.

Albert Einstein described this development in a letter to the Queen Mother of Belgium, dated January 2, 1955.

“When I look at mankind today, nothing astonishes me quite so much as the shortness of man’s memory with regard to political developments. Yesterday the Nuremberg trials, today the all-out effort to re-arm Germany.

“In seeking for some kind of explanation, I cannot rid myself of the thought that this, the last of my fatherlands, has invented for its own use a new kind of colonialism, one that is less conspicuous than the colonialism of old Europe. It achieves domination of other countries by investing American capital abroad, which makes those countries firmly dependent on the United States. Anyone who opposes this policy or its implications is treated as an enemy of the United States. It is within this general context that I try to understand the present-day policies of Europe, including England.”

Capital colonialism is the policy of the United States today, and anyone who opposes this policy is treated as an enemy of the United States, and of freedom itself.

As President George W. Bush infamously remarked, “You’re either with us or against us.”

As a result, war has become an integral part of the U.S. and global economies, and of the U.S. political culture. With U.S. military bases installed worldwide, ‘weaker’ counties are being forced – by sheer military and economic might – to support the priorities of the U.S. corporate-military-industrial complex. If anyone desires to understand world events today, he simply cannot ignore this fact.

Civilized nations

How can well-fed nations have peace when their brothers and sisters are dying without any food or water? How can we aim to conquer the stars and the world while our brothers and sisters are suffering here on Earth?

The annual US military budget could bring the whole unfortunate world out of hunger and disease and illiteracy for a whole year. The problem today is that the west preaches freedom but it uses double standards: ‘freedom’ at home but extortion towards the neighbors. These are crimes against humanity, and yet we dare to speak about retributions; about war in the name of peace.

“Civilized” nations need to remember the suffering of the rest of the world always, not just when they create a crisis. Will they wake up out of their lethargy and see that poverty is the cause of terrorism — poverty that they have created by accumulating power and riches at the expense of other ‘weaker’ nations? Will they have to reach a global war in order to see and hear what they have done to the rest of the world?

Let them move fast towards world peace. Omnicide is becoming more and more a future possibility not by the terrorists, but by the death they have created and are ready to unleash on the face of the earth by their own hands.

The nations of hypocrisy know very well that the weapons of terrorists are no match for their own stored weapons of terror. They are ready to incinerate the earth many times over and thus themselves and their own children, and yet they dare to speak about terrorism? Sadly they have lost their humanity. Will they find it again before the unthinkable? This is the time to decide.

Diplomatic Defeat

The indefensible desire for maintaining weapons of mass destruction and even building new ones marks a diplomatic defeat for the American government in the eyes of the world. Today the U.S. is among the most powerful nations on Earth, as it was even in 1930. Therefore, humanity’s success against violence and war depends very much on how Americans react to these concerns.

Why have not American citizens participated in world affairs so far? Why have they allowed their representatives to lie to them and work in secrecy? Why have they allowed their foreign policy to be a policy of murder and injustice for so long? Have they ever wondered who makes their foreign policy? Do they still believe in the American dream?

Described by Madeleine Albright as an “indispensable nation”, the moral obligation of American citizens cannot be overemphasized in the struggle against militarism and war. The people of the USA have not shown much interest in the great international problems, most important of all, the problem of disarmament. Americans have trusted their government to do it for them. Yet ‘dollar hunger’ is the basic characteristic of government’s foreign policy. Profit and more profit is the American dream today, and where does this profit come from? It comes from our so-called allies.

Quality of life should not to be confused with convenience. As Mahatma Gandhi said, the world has enough for every man’s needs but not for every man’s greed. We must realize the great responsibility we bear for world peace. If not, in the long run, it will be disastrous to the whole world.

With regard to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, eminent scientist Albert Einstein had emphasized that the Jewish people, who had themselves suffered so much from discrimination and oppression, should fully appreciate the necessity of pursuing a policy of freedom, democracy and equality for the Arab minority in Israel. On January 4, 1955 he wrote: “The attitude we adopt toward the Arab minority will provide the real test of our moral standards as a people.” Yet what do we see today? The military intervention of the U.S-powered Israeli military.

It is apparent that the struggle against armaments and the spirit of militarism cannot be safely left in the hands of governments or the peace movement. Pacifist organizations with large memberships will not bring us closer to world peace either. The only effective way is through non-cooperation with corporations and through cooperation among ourselves. The evidence of history shows us that governments are either unwilling or unable to achieve real disarmament. It is the people who must express their desire for disarmament if they really want it. Our moral duty as human beings in the world is to become conscious citizens of the world.

Our destiny as humans will be determined not by our weapons of mass destruction but by our vision. We have looked around for leaders and we have found almost none. We have dreamed for them to be compassionate, wise, courageous, and skillful. We have looked inside and we recognized the enemy. We looked inside once again and we saw our leaders. They are you and I!

Behind the Nuclear Agenda

Most Americans do not know that their government has been using nuclear extortion to maintain and expand global influence and control since the nuclear age began. But there is no government in the world that does not know that a nuclear threat backs up every U.S. or U.S.-led military action anywhere in the world. On more than twenty occasions U.S. Presidents have prepared and/or threatened to initiate nuclear war during international crises, beginning with President Truman’s threatened nuclear attack against the Soviet Union during the 1946 crisis over two northern Iranian provinces.

Many of us believed that after the cold war, the threat of nuclear war was over. But who says that the cold war is over? If you believe that, then you need to go and read what the plans of the West by 2020 are. You need to know that which almost every Western citizen is incapable of understanding or believing, simply that the USA government with its allies plans to dominate the world by 2020 through space. It has well-documented plans to place weapons and high-energy lasers in space with the ability to pinpoint and even eliminate any undesirable individual or even country. I have found during my speaking engagements that people almost exclusively cannot grasp the fact that these documents are real, not fake as they try to argue.

You can learn more here:

Defense Technical Information Center: “Space Force 2020: A Force for the Future” published by U.S. Air Command and Staff, Maxwell Air Force Base [Source]
U.S. Navy: “U. S. Fleet Cyber Command / TENTH Fleet 2015 – 2020” by Jan E. Tighe Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy Commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command Commander, U.S. TENTH Fleet [Source]
U.S. Airforce: “An Air Force Strategic Vision for 2020–2030” by John A. Shaud, General, USAF, Retired Adam B. Lowther [Source]
U.S. Army: “Sustaining the Army of 2020” by Major General Larry D. Wyche [Source]
U.S. Airforce: “The Enemy As A System” by Colonel John A. Warden III, USAF [Source]

For further context and information:

Soldier’s Magazine (republished by U.S. Army): “Westphal looks ahead to Army of the Future” – Elizabeth M. Collins, Soldiers magazine [Source]
Federation of American Scientists: “United States Space Command United States Space Command United States Space Command VISION FOR 2020” [Source]
Time Magaine: “Zap Wars: U.S. Navy Successfully Tests Laser Weapon in the Persian Gulf” – by Mark Thomson for Time Magazine [Source]

We see the execution of these plans developing before our eyes — and yet, we willingly deny what we see. Very interestingly, people typically do not want to research these matters any further; in my experience, they simply feel comfortable keeping their heads under the sand. But until when?

Today, in the relative absence of another military ‘superpower’, the U.S. has taken its position as a military force to do whatever it wants, with little real opposition: It sells weapons to countries involved in civil war, controls the United Nations decisions, bombs wherever it decides to, enforces sanctions and controls the lifting of them according to its own interests – causing the suffering and deaths of countless thousands. And as the only country to ever deploy nuclear weapons (having dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII) the U.S. uses its political and military leverage to prevent other countries such as Iran from developing them, while continuing to accumulate its own stockpiles and maintaining policies of hostility toward other nuclear nations (such as North Korea.)

An attitude like this, of greed and hypocrisy, cannot bring anything but hate from other countries and retaliation, sooner or later. The dominance of Western corporate power today means that nuclear war in the near future is inevitable, unless the other nations adopt appropriate counter-measures in time to avert the danger, without retaliating to ongoing threats from the U.S.

Efforts to establish international peace through international law is difficult to accomplish at any time, and certainly impossible to achieve as long as corporations are in power. Corporate hunger will never be satisfied unless the people first understand who it really is that brings this corporate hunger into existence; the consumer. When will we take responsibility for our actions? When will we citizens of the world come out of our hiding places? Unless we conquer our fears and radically alter our current path, “Armageddon” is inevitable.

Solutions

The answer can be found in history. History can teach us that which we do not understand today. Will we learn from history?

Albert Einstein in 1933 hoped for peace after the rearmament of nations, by having an international court of arbitration whose judgment could be enforced, or by establishing an international police force. But very interestingly, after the horror of WWII, Einstein in 1947 declared, “For there is no secret and there is no defense; there is no possibility of control except through the aroused understanding and insistence of the peoples of the world.” This realization came only after the WWII horror. History has shown us that preparing for war has never worked for peace.

I say, let’s start talking about peaceful solutions and enacting them, rather than just describing the problems. And the only way to move towards enlightenment is to free our minds from the tyranny of greed. It is best achieved by adopting a simple style of living.

Although I was a pacifist before my arrival in the U.S. in 1978, I had never translated these sentiments into any form of organized protest. I had taken no stand on public issues, nor had I been engaged in civic affairs or political action. My experience maintaining nuclear weaponry at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, together with the events of Wen Ho Lee, polygraph tests, the Nuclear Ignition Facility scandal, and the Kosovo war, were the last birth pains to bring me publicly into the peace movement.

Today many people still speak of war as a method to resolve disputes. But they should be reminded of Einstein’s words:

“For there is no secret and there is no defense; there is no possibility of control except through the aroused understanding and insistence of the peoples of the world.”

There is no defense and no protection for a world armed with nuclear weapons, or weapons of mass destruction in general. Our only defense against nuclear war is for people to understand the enormous danger, and insist on their abolition.

To achieve this, we desperately need leaders to emerge from within the corporate/military complex, to take a stand for world peace while they are discharging their duties, not after they retire. In order to help insiders take such a position, what is needed is what Bertrand Russell wrote in the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, which was signed by 11 prominent scientists, among whom was also Einstein: “A large-scale civil disobedience, which should be nonviolent…”

“We are speaking on this occasion, not as members of this or that nation, continent, or creed, but as human beings, members of the species Man, whose continued existence is in doubt… We have to learn to think in a new way. We have to learn to ask ourselves, not what steps can be taken to give military victory to whatever group we prefer, for there no longer are such steps; the question we have to ask ourselves is: what steps can be taken to prevent a military contest of which the issue must be disastrous to all parties?” ~ London Launch of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, 9th July 1955

These views are perhaps considered extreme. But how extreme is the reality of the possibility that we are ready to destroy all that we see around us and ourselves forever? How extreme is the reality that our so-called leaders would willingly lead humanity down this destructive path?

Where is the wisdom in their actions? Honesty in speech, thought or action is as uncommon as ever in modern politics. We accept secrets and half-truths under the guise of so-called national secrets. What good are “free” press and democratic public debate if crucial facts pertaining to the citizens of the country are concealed by the rulers of the day?

To overcome such horrifying ignorance, we need to start with the truth.

The gospel of force and repression, currently prevailing in the West, poses grave threats to the world and the independence of its inhabitants. Our so-called leader’s finger is on the button that can annihilate entire populations at his command, and in an world of increasing nuclear States, any nuclear strike would amount to an act of mutually assured destruction.

In the nuclear age, more than at any other time in the history of our world, national laws and personal/family responsibilities cannot set personal moral responsibility aside. This threat cannot successfully be combated except by moral means; it can be met only by organized civil disobedience. We had better face this uncomfortably truth today, in order to live tomorrow.

While there are thousands of activities taking place every day working for the end of the world and only a few people working to stop them, it seems logical to me that those working for peace must now focus their activities toward public education. If there is a chance of saving our world from nuclear holocaust, it will be accomplished through the power of people, not by ‘fringe’ activists or by governments – that much is clear.

Thus I would suggest that all scientific groups or activists working for peace must adopt immediate plans for public education rather than trying to convince politicians of abolition, or watching to see if the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is followed.

Let us not deceive ourselves; let us not be lost in the details; let us stop hiding. If we really want ourselves, our children, our grandchildren, and the future generations to have life as it is supposed to be on Earth, then we must stop feeding the corporate hunger and show the way to our fellow man. Take greed and fear away; give your extra to the ones who have less instead of to the corporations, and when you give don’t ask for interest and everything will be fine. We must cease feeding governments and corporations with our fear and greed.

Furthermore, it is obvious that the international military force is a hostage to the corporate hunger of the West. Thus it is obvious that the international military organization is not an indispensable prerequisite to the abolition of war as it was thought to be in the past. This international military organization was envisioned as the antidote for the rearmament of individual nations. But it did not work — because violence simply begets violence.

Why has the entire civilized world failed to join in a united effort to bring an end to this modern barbarism? Can it be that the world does not see that the Western corporate hunger is dragging us into global catastrophe?

Physical power never broke the spirit of freedom, and it never will. We need to move towards unilateral disarmament, and move fast. That seems to be the only way, the way of trust. The hardest way is always the best.

Call to action

Why hasn’t the peace movement driven the people to the streets? I do not mean just for vigils and demonstrations but for civil resistance. When the world is watching the nuclear bombs fall from the sky, it will be too late!

On the surface, it may appear as though the peace movement is talking to the government leaders and has made great progress toward the abolition of nuclear weapons. Perhaps we are too critical of the effectiveness of the peace movement. Perhaps we should be thankful for what we have already achieved. Beside, who am I say? Yesterday I was working on nuclear weapons, and today I am saying we have not done enough to abolish them, while activists have been working within the peace movement all along. This is understandable. But I never worked on nuclear weapons from my own will. I was fooled for a while, lured in by the promise of nuclear non-proliferation work, and when I realized what I was doing and why, I immediately stopped working to join the peaceful resistance. In any case, such comparison is not the correct attitude to encourage other scientists to give up war science.

In my view, the peace movement is talking to the wrong people. Peace activists speak to peace activists; that is the real weakness of the peace movement. To espouse the ideals of pacifism, mere words get pacifists nowhere. Activists should be talking to the citizens of the world, not wasting their time petitioning complicit governments. Deeds, not words, are needed. If we accept in our hearts the risk to our careers, properties, and even our lives in working for peace, then and only then will we advance far on the road to a more peaceful world.

So what is the reason that the leaders of the mainstream peace movement are so eager to continue talking to government officials? Because, although it is historically futile, it is easier. Dealing with government does not require such personal sacrifice as taking one’s message to the people. Dealing with government even leads to positions within government and many other organizations and foundations (NGOs) with a salary, medical insurance and even prestige. Then, after a while, it becomes like any other job, bound by the confines of the system — no different from a job making weapons.

Now look at how Mahatma Gandhi worked for peace. He owned nothing. He had a number of children though he left them no mansions or business empires. But he left a lasting legacy.

The difference is we are just talkers, not doers — because we are not really serious. To become serious, we need to love one another, to trust one another, to help and serve our fellow beings — even if they hate us for it. We must speak truth in love, fearlessly, even if we are to die at that moment. We must renounce ownership, to become masters of our minds and bodies. We must embrace all humanity and living things just as we embrace our own lives, and act in accordance with the seriousness of our situation.

It is a temptation to suggest that pacifists of all countries establish an international organization and an international pacifist fund to support the active war resisters of our days. History shows though that this is not the most effective means for raising public awareness of the peril we face.

Genuine pacifists know that only by personal sacrifice can world peace be truly realized. They know that, even if they one day find themselves against the whole world, they must never lose faith, and remain active, and only then will the world take notice. Non-pacifists will then hear pacifists, and their message will reach the hearts of the non-pacifists. But by being restrained, and speaking only with those who already know, they reach only other pacifists. Of what use is this?

What is needed is a social revolution; a nonviolent direct action of non-cooperation with the system of violence of our days. Organized action on a large scale is necessary. If only 1% of those claiming to be members of the peace movement were willing to detach themselves from the chores of everyday life and constantly protest against war, the whole world would inevitably join in. But it is easier to talk than act. We must make uncomfortable decisions for the sake of our future, and place society and the welfare of others above our families. Time is running out for the children of the earth. This is the last real test of our moral standards as people of the earth.

When the people understand what has been prepared for them by their own governments, then the people will talk to the governments by way of their sincere and active personal sacrifices, not just by sending emails and petitions. Emails and petitions, prayers and vigils – they are good, but not good enough. Without personal sacrifice, nothing will happen!

We are all responsible for weapons of Mass Destruction. Scientists would not be able to devise these weapons if the citizens of every nation stopped paying the taxes that support them. We are all responsible, and we can abolish them only by working together.

At the hands of colonial capitalists, we have become the evil we deplore. The leaders of this world are ready to stain the whole world with innocent blood again. It would not be the first time but the third, and most likely the last time. Until we collectively intervene, military force will intensify the hatred toward the countries using it and terrorism will continue to be a threat to everyone. We already have ignored the fact that biological, chemical or nuclear terrorism would be thousands of times worse. If the people of the world stay in the phase of just talking, without using nonviolent civil resistance and direct action, we will soon see the global catastrophe that no one would like to see or can even imagine.

If we choose to stay simply talkers, that day is not very far from us.

Peace.

Previous articles by Andreas Toupadakis:

About the author:

Born on the beautiful island of Crete in Rethymno, Greece, Andreas Toupadakis received his B.S. in Chemistry from the Aristotelian University in Thessaloniki. He has lived in the U.S. since 1978, and received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan in 1990. Following a career in industry, academia and two U.S. Government laboratories, in 2001 Dr. Toupadakis resigned from a classified government position maintaining nuclear weaponry at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California to actively contribute to the peace movement.

Since 2005, Dr. Toupadakis has been teaching at U.C. Davis, including courses in General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Physical Chemistry for Life Sciences. A passionate proponent of the Socratic dialogue method, he was the winner of the 7th annual ASUCD Excellence in Education Award as U.C. Davis’ educator of the year in 2009. He is also the author of three chemistry study guides, and teaches two popular freshman seminars at U.C. Davis every quarter: “From Self-Awareness to Personal Growth for True Success in and After College” and “World Music as a Means to Embrace Diversity and Reach Self-Discovery”.

Besides teaching chemistry at UC Davis, Dr. Toupadakis has taught chemistry at several other colleges and universities in the U.S. and in Greece, and has also given lectures and written articles on life planning through wise career choice, career change and career satisfaction, and sustainable living across campuses in the U.S., Greece, Japan and recently in India.

His personal website, TheLifeCurve.com, is devoted to student success during and after college. Dr. Toupadakis spends a great deal of his free time with his students at his organic garden plot, which is provided by the Experimental College Community Garden of UC Davis. He also encourages his students to have their own garden plots.

Visit TheLifeCurve.com for more information, or read more from Dr. Toupadakis here on Wake Up World.

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