nuclear-news

The menace of humanity’s growing environmental footprint

Are we all doomed?, New Statesman, Martin Rees,11 June 11 “…….We have entered an era when human beings pose a greater threat than nature to the earth’s future. This started with the invention of nuclear weapons. Robert McNamara, US defence secretary during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, later said: “We came within a hair’s-breadth of nuclear war without realising it. It’s no credit to us that we escaped – [Nikita] Khrushchev and [John F] Kennedy were lucky, as well as wise.”
The threat of global nuclear annihilation involving tens of thousands of bombs has been in abeyance since the end of the cold war. But, in future decades, a global political realignment could lead to a stand-off between new superpowers which could be handled less well or less luckily than the Cuban crisis was. In the meantime, there is more risk than ever that smaller nuclear arsenals will be used in a regional context, or even by terrorists……
Humankind’s collective footprint is growing. It may irreversibly degrade our environment as our numbers grow and we each consume more. Advanced technology threatens us with other vulnerabilities…….
“The bells which toll for mankind, are – most of them, anyway – like the bells on Alpine cattle; they are attached to our own necks and it must be our fault if they do not make a cheerful and harmonious sound.”
New Statesman – Are we all doomed?

June 14, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general