Climate changes may lead to violence, experts warn | National | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle

Global climate changes could lead to violenceExperts say it will accelerate the race for food, water
chron.com By SCOTT CANONMcClatchy-TribuneNov. 15, 2008, “…………………The Earth’s fast-changing climate has a range of serious thinkers — from military brass to geographers to diplomats — predicting a spate of armed conflicts driven by the weather…………………………We will pay for this one way or another,” wrote retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, the former chief of the U.S. Central Command. “We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today, and we’ll have to take an economic hit of some kind. Or, we will pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives. There will be a human toll.”…………………………”Governments that are already weak will be destabilized much more often and much more easily,” said Jay Gulledge, a senior scientist at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change……………………………….

Even efforts to mitigate global warming could prove dangerous.

Nuclear power …………….could mean the spread of doomsday technology to unstable parts of the world. Iran already is thought to be cloaking nuclear weapons ambitions inside “peaceful” nuclear facilities.

Climate changes may lead to violence, experts warn | National | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

November 17, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Kissinger fears Pakistan could become a ‘failed state’

Kissinger fears Pakistan could become a ‘failed state’
Press Trust of India 17 Nov 08 New Delhi, Nov 16 (PTI) Fearing that Pakistan could become a “failed state”, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger today said the Barack Obama administration will be faced with the challenge of preventing that as it could be an “extraordinary” situation considering that Pakistan has nuclear weapons.
Kissinger also suggested that the George W Bush government had “failed” on the Afghanistan front and said the next regime will have to conduct re-evaluation of the problem posed by the war-torn country.

Kissinger fears Pakistan could become a ‘failed state’

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

November 17, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | 1 Comment

‘Mutually assured destruction’ would be inevitable – On Line Opinion – 4/11/2008

‘Mutually assured destruction’ would be inevitable
ONLINE Opinion by Stephen Cheleda 4 November 2008 “………………………..

The use of nuclear weapons by the major powers as a mode of warfare would spell the end of us all. Everyone is aware of these facts, especially those who control these weapons. They are, after all, weapons of mass destruction. There may be “collateral damage” in a battle, but killing millions of innocent civilians cannot be dismissed as such.

The International Court of Justice arrived at the same conclusion when the World Court Project (through the World Health Organisation) challenged the legality of nuclear weapons. In July 1996 the World Court, after long deliberation and against much pressure from the Nuclear Weapon States, found that the threat or use of nuclear weapons was generally against international humanitarian law. The Court declared unanimously that all states have an obligation to “pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament”………………………

We have to devise a security system, based on effective, enforceable international law that guarantees trading patterns and adequate development of all nations, without the “threat” or false security of nuclear weapons.

This will not happen overnight. It will have to be the result of complex negotiations to radically revise the Charter of the United Nations, which is the bedrock of international law. At present the Charter is interpreted to favour the five Permanent Members (the major nuclear weapon states). It ignores or subverts the need for security of every other nation.

‘Mutually assured destruction’ would be inevitable – On Line Opinion – 4/11/2008

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

November 4, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

tehran times : The horror of U.S. depleted uranium in Iraq threatens the world

The horror of U.S. depleted uranium in Iraq threatens the world
TEHRAN TIMES November 1, 2008 American and British use of DU is a crime against humanity which may, in the eyes of historians, rank with the worst atrocities of all time. War vets who’ve returned from Iraq are sitting on DU death row. All this, a net result of the White House’s reaction to 9/11…………………………….these weapons have released deadly, carcinogenic and mutagenic radioactive particles in such abundance that — whipped up by sandstorms and carried on trade winds — there is no corner of the globe they cannot penetrate — including Britain. For the wind has no boundaries and time is on their side: the radioactivity persists for over 4,500,000,000 years and can cause cancer, leukemia, brain damage, kidney failure and extreme birth defects — killing millions of every age for centuries to come. A crime against humanity which main the eyes of historians, rank with the worst atrocities of all time……………………Yet, officially, no crime has been committed. For this story is a dirty story in which the facts have been concealed from those who needed them most. It is also a story we need to know if the people of Iraq are to get the medical care they desperately need, and if our troops, returning from Iraq, are no to suffer as terribly as the veterans of other conflicts in which depleted uranium was used.

‘Depleted’ uranium is in many ways a misnomer. For ‘depleted’ sounds weak. The only weak thing about depleted uranium is its price. It is dirt cheap, toxic waste from nuclear power plants and bomb production………………..The lack of government interest in the plight of veterans of the 1991 war is reflected in a lack of academic research on the impact of DU, but informal research has found a high incidence of birth defects in their children and that the wives of men who served in Iraq have three times more miscarriages than the wives of servicemen who did not go there………………….What the governments of America and Britain have done to the people of Iraq, they have also done to their own soldiers in both wars. And they have done it knowingly. For the battlefields have been thick with DU and soldiers have had to enter areas heavily contaminated by bombing. …………..Yet, though the hazards of DU were known, British and American troops were not warned of its dangers. Nor were they given thorough medical checks on their return — even though identifying it quickly might have made it possible to remove some of it from their body. Then, when a growing number became seriously ill, and should have been sent to top experts in radiation damage and neurotoxins, many were sent to a psychiatrist.

tehran times : The horror of U.S. depleted uranium in Iraq threatens the world

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

November 3, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

The Real News Network – ElBaradei: Iran far from acquiring nuclear weapon

ElBaradei: Iran far from acquiring nuclear weapon
Real News network October 24, 2008 Babak Yektafar: ElBaradei’s statement will not change minds of those who want to confront Iran International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei stated this week that Iran did not have the nuclear material, low enriched uranium, to develop a nuclear weapon. In 2007 The National Intelligence Estimate concluded that Iran is years away from acquiring the technology necessary to produce a nuclear weapon. The UN, the EU and the United States believe Tehran is working towards a nuclear bomb, an assertion Iran denies. Babak Yektafar believes that to properly solve the issue Washington needs to stop treating Tehran with a carrot and stick approach.

The Real News Network – ElBaradei: Iran far from acquiring nuclear weapon

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

October 27, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Exclusive: Nuclear test veterans & kids win probe into lethal legacy – mirror.co.uk

Exclusive: Nuclear test veterans & kids win probe into lethal legacy * *By Susie Boniface, sundaymirror.co.uk 26/10/2008 – “……………………..

New Defence Minister Kevan Jones has pledged to set up a study into the legacy of illnesses suffered by the soldiers, sailors and airmen present at the tests.

He will also order officials to look into our demands for an investigation into the welfare of the veterans’ children and grandchildren, who are 10 times more likely to suffer from birth defects……………………..

Around 20,000 servicemen are thought to have seen hundreds of atomic experiments in the US, Australia and the South Pacific between 1952 and 1967 as British scientists created nuclear weapons. The men were lined up on beaches and the decks of ships, ordered to turn their backs when the bombs went off, then turned back to watch the mushroom cloud.

Some were only a few miles from the blast. Most lived near the contaminated areas for a year or more, ingesting deadly fallout particles from the air, water and food……………………Today only 3,000 are believed to have survived and say they are plagued with cancers, ulcers, blood diseases, skin problems and rare medical conditions.

Exclusive: Nuclear test veterans & kids win probe into lethal legacy – mirror.co.uk

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

October 27, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | 1 Comment

Nation at risk from ‘dirty bomb’ | The Australian

Nation at risk from ‘dirty bomb’
THE AUSTRALIAN Cameron Stewart | October 27, 2008 AUSTRALIA’S proximity to the hotbeds of terrorism in Asia places it at greater risk of a biological terror attack, one of the US’s leading biosecurity experts has warned…………………..

“The biggest gap in preparations by the US and in the rest of the world is in dealing with a so-called dirty bomb (which disperses deadly radioactive material).

“If a dirty bomb were set off near the White House, it would make a five-block radius unlivable for many years. We are not yet ready to deal with something like that.”……………………

Plans have been made to establish deployable mortuary services within Australia capable of managing up to 5000 fatalities in any one event.

Experts say terrorists could construct and detonate a dirty bomb by stealing or buying radioactive material on the global black market.

Nation at risk from ‘dirty bomb’ | The Australian

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

October 27, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Moscow News – World – Nuclear Threat Warning

Nuclear Threat Warning
MOSCOW NEWS SYDNEY, Australia (AP) 24/10/2008 |– The world has not paid enough attention to the spread of nuclear weapons since the Cold War and could face devastation dwarfing the 9/11 attacks if the threat is not quickly curbed, the co-chair of a nuclear commission said Tuesday.Former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans said that while nuclear proliferation took a back seat to climate change and financial crises, countries such as India and Pakistan tested nuclear missiles, leaving the world vulnerable to an “avalanche” of new weapons.

“The last decade or so, the international community has been sleepwalking when it comes to this potentially catastrophic problem,” Evans told reporters during a break from the first meeting of the International Com­mission on Nuclear Non­pro­liferation and Disarmament.

“The scale of the havoc and the devastation that can be wreaked by one major nuclear weapons incident alone puts 9/11 – almost everything else – into the category of the insignificant,” said Evans, who is co-chair of the commission.

Moscow News – World – Nuclear Threat Warning

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

October 24, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

The nuclear sword of Damocles – On Line Opinion – 20/10/2008

The nuclear sword of Damocles

The Forum By Evaggelos Vallianatos,  20/10/2008 – “……………………………..the sword of Damocles, now armed with nuclear bombs, is ever ready to slice through the earth. Since August 6, 1945, the people of the world have had to live in the shadow of death.This new immoral condition is the outcome of the logic of total war and the religion of science, which grew around nuclear physics. That the global nuclear terror has survived for 63 years is partly a testimony to the hubris of the teachers of physics and engineering who, corrupted by the military, accepted bomb making as science.Such transformation of physics from the study of nature to the training of engineers to think and construct bombs and factories of nuclear electricity has had tragic consequences, the extreme example of which is evolving in Pakistan, India, Iran and North Korea possessing or making their own nuclear weapons.

Many Pakistanis and Indians can barely afford one meal a day, yet their countries are armed to the teeth with the ultimate bomb. Iran, governed by Islamic priests, is determined to acquire the bomb. And Communist North Korea is telling the world that now that it has its own atomic or nuclear bomb no one will dare ignore it any more.

To avoid a global nuclear meltdown, we must abolish all that has to do with the smashing of the atom – nuclear weapons and factories of nuclear electricity – or these technologies will abolish us. In large numbers, nuclear bombs are possibly geocidal. But even one is genocidal……………………..We should know the nuclear bomb is neither a battlefield weapon nor an object of worship. Using this technology for electricity is a dangerous delusion. Nuclear power plants never cease poisoning people and nature. The wastes of these factories will be hazardous for hundreds and thousands of years.

The nuclear sword of Damocles – On Line Opinion – 20/10/2008

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

October 20, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Nuclear disarmament push a ‘difficult job’ for Rudd – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Nuclear disarmament push a ‘difficult job’ for Rudd

ABC News Oct 17, 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will have difficulty leading the nuclear disarmament debate because of the nation’s expanding uranium industry, the Greens said.

Mr Rudd’s foreign policy initiative – the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament – will hold its first meeting in Sydney next week.

Mr Rudd last month said the commission has a two-year mandate to reinvigorate the global debate on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and for nuclear disarmament…………………

Greens Senator Scott Ludlum said while the commission was a welcome step, Australia’s role was compromised by its expanding uranium export industry.

“The key thing really is that it’s at risk already of being sabotaged by the nuclear power industry and the uranium mining industry,” he said.

“So the Prime Minister’s got a bit of a difficult job ahead of him walking that line.

“It’s going to be very difficult for Australia as one of the world’s largest uranium suppliers with a very powerful mining lobby to be an honest broker in this case.”…………………..

“This commission’s not going to be successful unless we are able to wind back the civil nuclear power industry because every nuclear power station essentially is just a plutonium factory hooked up to a steam turbine,” he said.

“We can’t have radical expansion of nuclear power capacity without making it dramatically more difficult to prevent weapons from spreading.”

Nuclear disarmament push a ‘difficult job’ for Rudd – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

October 20, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

WORLD’S FATE RESTS WITH ARMS CONTROL, DISARMAMENT INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS, YET STATE OF AFFAIRS UNSTABLE AT BEST, DISARMAMENT CHIEF TELLS FIRST COMMITTEE – 7thSpace Interactive

WORLD’S FATE RESTS WITH ARMS CONTROL, DISARMAMENT INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS, YET STATE OF AFFAIRS UNSTABLE AT BEST, DISARMAMENT CHIEF TELLS FIRST COMMITTEE
7th Space 17 Oct 08 Heads of Atomic Energy Agency, Disarmament Conference, Chemical Weapons, Test-Ban Treaty Organizations, Describe Efforts to Keep Pace with Emerging Threats
The future of the world rested in the fate of arms control and disarmament intergovernmental organizations, yet the current state of affairs in the fields of disarmament and arms control was unstable at best, the United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Sergio Duarte, said today.
Addressing the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), Mr. Duarte said that many Member States were confronted with a variety of crises, some of which had been particularly hard on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and had inspired doubts about the Treaty’s effectiveness in achieving its goals of disarmament and non-proliferation. Then too, some of the crises related to the lack of any multilateral legal obligations in certain fields, such as missiles, space weapons and conventional armaments.

Today, the heads of some key arms control and disarmament organizations – the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Preparatory Commission of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the Conference on Disarmament, and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons — spoke to the Committee about the impasses and breakthroughs they had experienced in an effort to keep pace with, and even ahead of, the indisputably fluid security environment.

With only nine countries remaining to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission of CTBTO, Tibor Toth, said his organization was making sure the verification regime was ready from “day one” of the Treaty’s entry into force. The system would comprise 337 facilities in 89 countries, each hosting a range of recording equipment maintained by nearly 500 operators worldwide, around the clock.

With the CTBT verification regime, a new standard of transparency had been achieved, which represented a new democracy in the verification of multilateral disarmament and non-proliferation instruments, he said, urging the Committee to stay focused, at the upcoming 2010 NPT Review Conference, on the gravity of nuclear dangers, and for Member States to contemplate the importance of progress on the test-ban Treaty’s entry into force.

WORLD’S FATE RESTS WITH ARMS CONTROL, DISARMAMENT INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS, YET STATE OF AFFAIRS UNSTABLE AT BEST, DISARMAMENT CHIEF TELLS FIRST COMMITTEE – 7thSpace Interactive

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

October 17, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Report: Ecoconsciousness can help win wars | csmonitor.com

Report: Ecoconsciousness can help win wars

By Mark Clayton| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor/ October 14, 2008 edition – “………………US Army commanders typically overlook environmental concerns in plans for operations overseas, says a new RAND Corporation study 

The conclusion: The US Army succeeds better when it’s a deeper shade of green……………………..

Commissioned by the Army Environ­mental Policy Institute (AEPI), the study examined the role environmental considerations and issues play in the Army’s “contingency operations” – long-term missions abroad that may involve conflict.

By being sensitive to environmental concerns, US Army can win hearts and minds of populace, but its record is spotty so far.

The RAND study refers only briefly to depleted uranium rounds. Past Monitor reports have found that using DU-tipped weapons to destroy enemy armor creates radioactive dust – as it has in Bosnia and in Iraq – that threatens soldiers and civilians. Some US veterans claim they were contaminated by DU residue.

Report: Ecoconsciousness can help win wars | csmonitor.com

Tags: nuclear

October 15, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Warning signs of an Israeli strike on Iran | David Owen – Times Online

Warning signs of an Israeli strike on Iran –
 The Sunday TimesOctober 12, 2008″ Some key decision makers in Israel fear that unless they attack Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities in the next few months, while George W Bush is still president, there will not be another period when they can rely on the United States as being anywhere near as supportive in the aftermath of a unilateral attack…………………………………….. Following an Israeli attack and Iranian countermeasures, the American military would be bound to follow Bush’s orders. The president-designate or, if before the election, the two candidates, would be wary of criticising him. It is imperative that voices are raised in America and Europe to warn Israel off unilateral action against Iran.

Warning signs of an Israeli strike on Iran | David Owen – Times Online

October 13, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Peace and Conflict Monitor, The creation of Iraq’s food insecurity 1980-2008

The creation of Iraq’s food insecurity 1980-2008
Ross Ryan  Peace & Conflict Monitor October 2008 the alluvial plain was degraded during the first Gulf War, which was a response to Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait, and entailed a counter-invasion into Iraq by a UN force led by the US military (Tripp 2002). It was into these fertile agricultural lands, whose harvests sustain the lives of millions of people, that the UN force, chiefly the US and British contingents, dropped thousands of tons of weaponry, including explosives cased in depleted uranium (Fisk 2000). According to one source, the US military “fired more than one million rounds of munitions tipped with radioactive depleted uranium” into the alluvial plain (Arnove 2000). In addition to the immediate environmental and agricultural costs, there is a strong possibility that the use of these weapons can be related to the fourfold increase of cancer rates which have subsequently been observed in the area (UNICEF 1999).

Peace and Conflict Monitor, The creation of Iraq’s food insecurity 1980-2008

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

October 11, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

The Associated Press: Britain planned taped messages after nuclear war

Britain planned taped messages after nuclear warOct 2, 2008LONDON (AP) — The doomsday script was never used by the British Broadcasting Corp., but decades later the message remains haunting.”This is the wartime broadcasting service,” the announcement begins. “This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons.”The decades-old statement continues: Communications have been severely disrupted, and the number of casualties and the extent of the damage are not yet known. The announcer promises to bring further information as soon as possible and tells listeners to stay tuned.A draft of the message was released by the National Archives on Friday, along with letters between government bureaucrats and BBC executives offering a rare glimpse at a Cold War secret plan to deal with a nuclear attack.

The Associated Press: Britain planned taped messages after nuclear war

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

October 10, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment