January 10, 2011
The nuclear Threat and global Warming
The nuclear weapons threat is the first major global threat to
life on Earth to have entered public consciousness. There are
a number of these threats now, including water, food and (for
humans) energy scarcity, as well as biotechnology, microwaves,
and, of course, global warming. But nuclear weapons were the first.
An insight of Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, in 1933, then
a formal idea expressed by him and Albert Einstein in a
letter to President Roosevelt, in 1939, the nuclear bomb
became a reality on August 6, 1945, when the United
States dropped a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
Since then, perhaps our narrowest escape from nuclear oblivion,
was during the Cuban missile crisis, in October 1962, when
our savior, Russian submarine commander Vasily Arkhipov,
his vessels under attack by U.S. destroyers, countermanded
an order to retaliate with nuclear-armed torpedoes.
By 2003, depleted uranium (DU) had been used by Israel
against Arabs (1973), and by the U.S. in Iraq (1991-2003),
Yugoslavia and Macedonia (1994-1995 and 1999), and
Afghanistan (2001), the total amount of radioactivity
released equivalent to that of 750,000 Hiroshima bombs. 1
Countries which have acquired nuclear weapons since 1945 include
the Soviet Union (now Russia, 1949), U.K. (1952), France (1960),
Israel (1960), China (1964), India (1998), Pakistan (1998), and
North Korea (2006). Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Egypt, Turkey, Iran,
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Brazil and Argentina are considering such weapons.
This, despite a “Plan for the Abolition of Nuclear Arms” (1946), an
“Atoms for Peace Program” (1953), and “Strategic Arms Limitation” (1968),
“Nuclear Non-proliferation” (1970), “Anti-Ballistic Missile” (1972),
“Strategic Arms Reduction” (1991, 1993, 2010), “Comprehensive Nuclear
Test Ban” (1996), and “Strategic Offensive Reductions” (2002) treaties.
Students of capitalism, colonialism, foreign aid, free trade
agreements, World Bank loan conditions, and International
Criminal Court signatories know the syndrome. In a
competitive system, the “haves” will not relinquish their
advantage, even if, at times, they sign treaties to that effect. 2
Global warming may be the next example of a two-
tiered world maintained, even as life is destroyed.
It may be the last example.
Notes
1. Israel – DU Use during Wars: During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, depleted uranium (DU) weapons were given by the United States to Israel, and, under the supervision of the U.S., were used by Israel against the Arabs (Hall 2005a, p. 1. Various references).
United States B DU Use during Wars (a)
|
Year |
Conflict |
Amount of DU fired (kilograms) |
Hiroshima Bomb Equivalent (b) |
|
1991-2003 |
Iraq and Kuwait (Operation Desert Storm)
(1991) Iraq (ANo-Fly Zones@) (1992-2003) Iraq
(Operation Desert Fox) (1998) |
800,000 |
146,080 |
|
1994-1995; 1999 |
Yugoslavia
and Macedonia |
100,000 |
18,260 |
|
2001 |
Afghanistan |
800,000 |
146,080 |
|
2003 |
Iraq |
2,410,000 |
440,066 |
|
Total |
|
4,110,000 |
750,486 |
(a) Hall, 2005a, pp. 3-5. Various
references.
(b) At the October 2003, World Uranium
Weapons Conference, in Hamburg, Germany, Professor Katsuma Yagasaki, of Ryukyus
University, Okinawa, Japan, reported his estimate that every ton (1,000
kilograms) of DU deposited releases the radioactivity equivalent of 182.6
Hiroshima bombs (Hall 2005b, p. 3. Various references).
______________________________________________________________________________
2. An example of signing a treaty and not abiding by it, is the behavior of the five nuclear weapons nations original party to the Non-proliferation Treaty – the United States, the Soviet Union (now Russia), the United Kingdom, France, and China. These are also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Schell 2007, pp. 106 and 209-211. Wikipedia “Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty,” 2011, p. 1).
References
Principal Reference:
Schell, Jonathan. 2007. The seventh decade – the new shape of nuclear danger. New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt/Metropolitan.
Treaties:
Baruch Plan for the Abolition of nuclear Arms (1946): pp. 36 and 57.
Atoms for Peace Program (1953): pp. 37 and 41.
Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT) (1968): pp. 107 and 109.
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) (1970): pp. 39-40, 81, 99.
P. 106 (The Treaty’s Articles I and II forbid nuclear weapons to all signatories except the five already then in possession of them (the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China). Article IV guarantees non-nuclear states access to all nuclear power technology, including the nuclear fuel cycle. Article VI permits the five nuclear states to join the Treaty, on condition that they give up their arsenals over time. They should “pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date”).
Pp. 108-109, 114-115, 135.
Pp. 209-211 (Progress on the international community’s agenda of modest, sensible measures to abolish nuclear weapons is stalled. Instead of a slow amelioration, we witness a nuclear renaissance pushing the world away from non-proliferation, toward the spread of nuclear weapons technology, new great-power confrontations, new arsenals, new missions, new leases on life for old arsenals and missions, and the actual use of nuclear arms. What is it that prevents so many sensible, eminently sane steps from being taken? The answer cannot be in doubt. It is the imperturbable resolve of the world’s nuclear powers to hold on to their arsenals indefinitely. As long as the nuclear powers will not surrender their rights to this technology, other nations will not give up the right to acquire it. A double-standard regime is thus a study in futility – a divided house that cannot stand, a wheel without an axle, a journey without a destination, a car with no engine under the hood. Its advocates preach what they have no intention of practicing).
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABMT) (1972): p. 108.
Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START I) (1991, 2010); and (START II) (1993): pp. 86 and 109.
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CNTBT) (1996): pp. 51 and 108.
Russian-American Strategic Offensive Reduction Talks (SORT) (2002): (Also known as the Moscow Treaty), pp. 109 and 207.
Other:
International Criminal Court (2002):
P. 110 [The Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court, signed by President Bill Clinton (2000), was “unsigned” by George W. Bush (2002), who proceeded to mount a global campaign of arm-twisting to pressure other countries to stay out of the Treaty. The Administration proposed, and Congress passed the American Service-members Protection Act, which authorizes the President to invade any country holding American soldiers who might be brought to justice before the Court. The troops of the Empire were not to be subject to legal sanction by the subject nations].
Other References:
Chomsky, Noam. 2006. Failed states – the abuse of power and assault on democracy. New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt/ Metropolitan.
P. 9: “We have already come close to the brink of nuclear war. The best-known case is the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962, when our escape from ‘nuclear oblivion’ was nothing short of ‘miraculous,’ two prominent researchers conclude. At a retrospective conference, in Havana, in 2002, historian and Kennedy advisor Arthur Schlesinger described the crisis as ‘the most dangerous moment in human history.’ Participants at the conference learned that the dangers were even more severe than they had believed. They discovered that the world was ‘one word away’ from the first use of a nuclear weapon since Nagasaki, as reported by Thomas Blanton of the National Security Archive, which helped organize the conference. He was referring to the intervention of a Russian submarine commander, Vasily Arkhipov, who countermanded an order to fire nuclear-armed torpedoes when his vessels were under attack by U.S. destroyers, with consequences that could have been dreadful.”
Hall, Francoise,
2004. “Nuclear Power – an infallible Technology for infallible Humans?” May 6 (16 pages, unpublished).
2005a. “Silent Omnicide – the Destruction of the human Gene Pool.” April 16 (13 pages, unpublished).
2005b. “Depleted Uranium (DU).” April 30 (10 pages, unpublished).
Wikipedia,
2010.
“START I”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated December 28. Accessed January 12, 2011.
“United States and the International Criminal Court.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated December 16. Accessed January 12, 2011.
2011.
“Hiroshima.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated January 8. Accessed January 10, 2011.
“Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated January 10. Accessed January 13, 2011.
“Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated January 5. Accessed January 12, 2011.
“Leo Szilard.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated January 4. Accessed January 10, 2011.
“World War II and atomic Bombing.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated January 9. Accessed January 10, 2011.
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