Cliff Duke forwards a prospective letter to Congress, which states in part:
> Global warming represents, by > far, the greatest threat ever posed to the planet's living resources, > which provide the foundation for our economy and our quality of life. The one thing that greatly concerns me about this form of communication, and this conversation in general, is the hyperbole that's likely to slip into the text. Global warming is not "by far the greatest threat that has ever been posed to the planet's living resources." It barely rates a second mentioning when compared to the first. I worked from 1963 to 1970 on nuclear weapons, with my final job (1968 to 1970) being at the Nuclear Weapons Effects Laboratory, White Sands Missile Range. My job there was specifically to determine the modes of damage that the various nuclear phenomena (blast, thermal, high-energy gamma and neutron radiation, electromagnetic pulse, etc.) would have on Army equipment. Ancillary to that was the determination that various nuclear exchange scenarios would have on human populations, specifically as to whether Army personnel would be capable of responding for a period of time after receiving varying degrees of lethal doses. My best estimates, although they were disputed by some, was that under a full nuclear exchange (15,000 nuclear explosions in the US, 15,000 nuclear explosions in the Soviet Union), all terrestrial vertebrate life (mammals, birds, reptiles, etc.) would be extinquished in the Northern Hemisphere, and quite likely in the Southern as well. For a great long while, it looked as if we were going to reset the evolution of terrestrial life on this planet back to the arthropods. No one knew this threat better than the American and Soviet generals who governed their respective arsenals. To say that they were scared shitless is an understatement. Twice, on two separate instances, in 1969 and 1970, I had US Army generals ask me how I thought that we might work our way out from underneath this pending destruction that seemed so imminent. Not only did I not have an answer, I was flabbergasted that they so sincerely asked me, a young engineering physicist of 25 at the time. In that regard, read the 1996 joint statement by Generals and Admirals from the world's nations: http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/ethics/issues/military/statement-by-international-generals.htm This letter was written 26 years after I quit the Nuclear Weapons Effects Lab. Nonetheless, pay special attention to the number of Russian and American generals who signed the letter. You may not be familiar with these names, but these were the people who had direct control over the nuclear arsenals at various times. In truth, global warming is likely to be nothing more than a great inconvenience. At it's worst, it will certainly mean the excess mortality of millions of people and the extinction of numerous, locally endemic species. And every effort should be mustered to mitigate its effects. But it is not the greatest threat that mankind has ever created for life on this planet. Wirt Atmar AICS Research, Inc University Park, NM 88003-4691 USA (575) 524-9800 (575) 526-4700 fax [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://aics-research.com/research/~atmar.html
