May 1996 Vol. XIII, No. 3

At the ``end of history'' and the end of the Cold War, anti-nuclear groups such as the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) seemed to drop out of public view. But they're back: ``The SSI [Sound Science Initiative] quick-response electronic network is up and running-and not a moment too soon!''

The four issue areas of the UCS campaign are: biodiversity, global climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and human population. In these areas, the global agenda of extreme ``environmentalists'' is somewhat threatened by the legacy of Dixy Lee Ray, the work of non-politically correct scientists, and the activism of believers in private property rights (and the U.S. Constitution). The U.S. Senate has postponed debate on ratification of the International Convention on Biodiversity, despite approval by the Foreign Relations Committee. And Congress might ``gut'' measures for implementing the Montreal Protocol banning CFCs.

The UCS Action Alert of April 29, 1996, is most concerned about budget cuts to international organizations for implementing population control programs (commitments from the Cairo conference), the Multilateral Fund of the Montreal Protocol, and the Global Environment Facility, which is concerned with the Climate Convention and the Convention on Biodiversity.

CFC imports and production for domestic use have been banned in the U.S. since January 1, 1996; the Western European ban occurred a year earlier. In recent years, to encourage conversion to equipment using new coolants, the U.S. imposed huge taxes on CFCs, more than tripling the price of a 30-pound cylinder to about $250. Motorists must now spend up to $100 to replenish leaky air conditioners with a few pounds of legally taxed CFCs, or $200 or more to re-equip for new coolants. ``Unexpectedly'' (to the UCS), the result has been a black market.

``It's like Prohibition all over again,'' stated federal prosecutor Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald. One scheme broken up in Florida involved CFC-12 worth $52 million. Sources include India, Russia, and China. Developing countries have until 2010 to phase out CFCs, but Poland, Russia, and the Ukraine have asked for a postponement, claiming that their economic problems make it impossible for them to carry out the phaseout. US aid to help finance the phaseout may be reduced.

The UCS is recruiting scientists to help uphold the scientific ``consensus'' now threatened by people like S. Fred Singer, Robert Jastrow, and Sallie Baliunas (who will speak at the Salt Lake City DDP meeting). UCS reassures activists that they need not be an expert to speak out. They simply have to be ``reasonably well informed,'' as by reading the talking points produced by UCS. To sign up, you may contact Lori Jackson by e-mail at ssiweb@ucsusa.org. The UCS Web Site is at http://www.ucsusa.org. Consult it to become informed about the sound and fury of the moment. But for sound science, visit the Heartland Institute's site at http://www.heartland.org or telephone PolicyFax at (847)202-4888 (selected documents from DDP, the American Council on Science and Health, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Cato, the Competitive Institute, the George C. Marshall Institute, and many others are among the offerings).

It's time to make your plans for the Salt Lake City meeting August 2-4; see enclosed program. Or if you can't attend, you may use the enclosed program to order audiocassettes or videotapes. Here are some previews on the speakers and the program:

Ed York's presentation on shelters for Soviet industrial workers is especially timely. Russia is continuing to build a mammoth underground military complex in the Ural Mountains, despite lacking the funds to comply with its arms control treaty obligations. The complex, which is served by a highway, a railroad, and thousands of workers, is as large as the area inside the Washington, D.C., Beltway. Its purpose is not certain. Pentagon officials believe it could serve as a command and control center for nuclear weapons and a bunker for military leaders.

``Some officials believe that the Russian project may even make the military balance more stable by reducing the Russian military's worries about a surprise attack'' (Ariz Daily Star 4/17/96).

A politically incorrect view of Soviet and Chinese strategic deception will be presented by Christopher Story, editor and publisher of The Perestroika Deception by Soviet defector Anatoliy Golitsyn. He believes the Soviets are playing a game called ``democratism,'' a Leninist concept of creating an illusion of democracy. ``Why was there no program equivalent to the German de-Nazification after the downfall of Communism?'' he asks.

In a May 15, 1996, editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Sam Cohen describes a Soviet-American collaboration at Los Alamos that is apparently intended to produce a pure-fusion weapon. The terrorist mini-neutron bomb has not been produced─yet. (Sam Cohen's presentation will concern the morality of American defense policy.)

America remains undefended. Will the time for actually building a missile defense ever come? Robert Jastrow, President of the George C. Marshall Institute, will address that question. Perhaps news from North Korea will help: According to the Mackenzie Institute Briefing Notes of April, 1996, ``The CIA and other agencies believe that North Korea had 1-2 nuclear weapons by late 1994.''

Even if Asian countries did not have delivery systems capable of reaching the U.S., their possession of nuclear weapons is a concern in itself. ``If a nuclear war in which the U.S. is not a belligerent is fought in China and if the weapons used produce tropospheric fallout, then the trans-Pacific fallout deposited on the U.S. may create long-term health hazards that protective countermeasures can do much to lessen. Yet no ready-to-implement plans for such effective countermeasures exist today,'' stated publication ORNL-4900, dated November, 1973. DDP recently received a copy of this publication from Cresson Kearny. What was true in 1973 remains true today, and knowledge of countermeasures has even deteriorated. In a letter to Science, Kearny writes:

``In the April 19, 1996, issue...[it states on p. 360]: `Much of the radiation exposure [from the Chernobyl accident] could have been countered by rapid administration of nonradioactive iodine to `flush out' the radioactive isotopes from binding sites in the thyroid.' In fact, once radioactive isotopes, primarily those of iodine, have been taken up in quantity by the thyroid, subsequent administration of nonradioactive iodine...does not significantly prevent damage to the thyroid.

``Hundreds of health physicists, and no doubt thousands of other Americans who take nuclear dangers and protective countermeasures seriously, know that stable potassium iodide should be taken before ingestion of fallout-contaminated food, especially fresh milk, or inhalation of air containing radioactive fallout particles or gases....Michael Balter's article...contains dangerously erroneous information....

``Health-endangering contamination of milk by radioiodines in trans-Pacific war fallout is one more reason why Americans should be provided with trustworthy information on the prophylactic uses of nonradioactive potassium iodide.'' (See Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson Kearny, $12.50 postpaid.]