September 1994 (vol. 10, #6)
1601 N Tucson Blvd #9, Tucson AZ 85716 c 1994
Physicians for Civil Defense
The human population in the world should number only 250 to 300 million, according to butterfly expert Paul Ehrlich and global expert Ted Turner. Except for the elite, the population should exist in Stone Age poverty.
The idea (obscured by euphemisms) is wildly popular. Ehrlich's book The Population Bomb sold 3 million copies, and its assumptions have permeated national consciousness.
A nuclear holocaust, by itself, could not achieve this objective. Moreover, it would have the adverse effect of stressing the Planet as well as its human inhabitants.
The goal could be achieved incrementally, by obliterating the technology (and public hygiene) required to sustain large populations. Here are some examples of progress:
From Jodie Ahern, editor of Midwest Home and Design, writing in the St. Paul Pioneer Press: ``[T]he optimal domain in my opinion will always be the cottage....It's built with such unorthodox [Third World ed.] materials as recycled newspapers, ryegrass straw, and tiles made from fluorescent light bulbs.''
A taxpayer-funded ``Eco-Info'' ad in The Winona Post stated that detergents and disinfectants are ``bad'' for environmentally sound housekeeping: the green housekeeper uses only vinegar and baking soda.
A University of Minnesota agricultural extension agent had advice about handling a slug infestation: ``handpicking is the cheapest, easiest, most effective and safest way to get rid of slugs. Remember, it is a Nike moment: just do it.'' [Slugs are a vector for Angiostrongylus cantonensis, a worm that infests the central nervous system. Angiostrongyliasis is endemic in Hawaii, Australia, and Asia.]
(See ``Gracious Green Living,''Environment Betrayed, Aug, 1994, single issues $4, PO Box 1161, Winona, MN 55987.)
On the institutional scale, the University of Miami has a ``new'' air-conditioning system that might be called ``Back to the Future,'' according to school spokesman Farriss Samarrai (UPI, June 27, 1994).
At the turn of the century, ammonia was used as a refrigerant to make ice. Fans blew across the ice to cool the air. The University of Miami is adopting that method to cool its marine school. The system will freeze 20,000 gallons of water each night when energy costs are low.
The school expects to recover the full cost of the $1.7 million system in five years through energy savings. Also helping are funds from taxpayers and Florida Power and Light ratepayers: a $265,000 rebate from the power company for the ``high-efficiency'' equipment plus incentives for curbing peak demand loads; a $206,000 energy-saving grant from the State of Florida; and $440,000 to energy conservation programs at three campuses of UM over four years.
Ammonia has ``zero ozone-depleting potential.''
It is also corrosive and causes edema of the respiratory tract, spasm of the glottis, and death due to asphyxia when inhaled. Mixtures of ammonia and air will explode when ignited under favorable conditions, although ammonia is generally considered nonflammable. Repairmen have died while servicing equipment that used ammonia as a refrigerant.
Why is this retrograde progress being widely applauded rather than ridiculed and deplored?
Dr. Edward C. Krug explored some of the reasons at the 12th Annual Meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, held in Tucson August 27-28 (see enclosed tape order form).
``Communism redefined the man-man relationship. Environmentalism redefines the man-nature relationship.''
In the environmental view, man is basically evil and incapable of determining his own fate.
The rational basis for thought has been replaced by the Eastern religious view that the real world is an illusion. This means the end of traditional democracy, science, technology, humanism, and Christianity, in Krug's opinion. Both science and technology have their historical roots in the Christian dogma of man's rightful mastery over nature, said Krug, quoting Paul Ehrlich.
Nevertheless, the environmentalist assumptions are expressed in scientific language. Many scientists speaking at the DDP meeting showed that those assumptions are often exactly backwards. For example:
1. Every hit by a particle of radiation can cause a cancer. On the contrary, low-dose radiation is probably beneficial (B. Cohen and T.D. Luckey, see DDP Newsletter, Sept. 1994.) The widely publicized experiments with low-dose radiation in human subjects, portrayed as atrocities by the media, were either harmless or beneficial, according to Dr. Howard Maccabee.
2. Carbon dioxide is a pollutant. Actually, CO2 is the basic building block for all life. Sherwood Idso reviewed extensive experimental evidence that enriching the atmosphere in CO2 stimulates plant growth while decreasing water requirements.
3. South is always down. Therefore, designers of the Central Arizona Project assumed that water would run one-half mile uphill to Tucson, observed Dr. Jay Lehr.
4. Higher atmospheric CO2 causes global warming. In fact, it is possible that global warming causes an increase in CO2, stated Dr. Frederick Seitz. Dr. Seitz also challenged the statement that anthropogenic CO2 resides in the atmosphere for 100 years, based on stratospheric C-14 resulting from nuclear weapons tests.
5. CFCs deplete ozone, threatening to flood the earth with deadly ultraviolet radiation. This statement is based on a large number of other assumptions. To name a few: Molecules always break at their strongest link, not their weakest one (Krug). Ultraviolet levels are increasing. (They are not, according to Dr. S. Fred Singer also see Access to Energy, Jan, 1994.) CFC levels and residence time and chlorine levels have been measured with extreme precision, for the last 40 years, from the ``surface of the earth to the top of the sky,'' according to Al Gore. (Samples are few, sparse, and variable; the first CFC measurement was done in 1971; and laboratory contamination of the samples must be ruled out Krug)
Are we making progress back to the future of Orwell's 1984? The Ministry of Truth (manufacturer of lies) said: War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.
Big Brother is watching shrimp boats with high-tech, night-vision equipment.
Fishermen report that Coast Guardsmen have stormed their boats, pointing armed weapons at them, demanding to inspect their turtle exclusion devices. They complain that drug smug-glers are treated better than honest working men (Corpus Christi Caller-Times, quoted in Environment Betrayed 7/94).
The so-called Humane Society of Hillside, NJ, has brought charges of rat abuse against Frank Balun, who killed a rat that had been eating his tomatoes. Mr. Balun faces a possible $1000 fine and six months in jail (News from the FLOC, 1730 Garden of Eden Rd, Cambridge, MA 21613).
Pneumonic plague has returned to India for the first time in 30 years. At least 51 people have died in Surat, and the hospital is treating 359 cases. The disease is spread by fleas from infected rats, which multiplied in the wake of monsoon rains (Ariz Daily Star 9/25/94).
``The Convention...does prohibit the use of RCAs as a method of warfare. The Administration understands that this prohibition applies only to their use as a method of warfare in international and internal armed conflict. Use of RCAs for operations such as normal peacekeeping operations, humanitarian and disaster relief missions, and counter-terrorism and hostage rescue are unaffected by the CWC.''
Slocombe cited Executive Order 11850 of April, 1975, that forbids ``the first use of riot control agents in war except in defensive military mode to save lives.''
The CWC permits the use of RCAs in ``law enforcement'' within the scope of a nation's ``jurisdiction to enforce'' its national law. However, when such actions are undertaken in the context of functions under the authority of the UN, they must be specifically authorized by that organization.
``No act is one of `law enforcement' if it otherwise would be prohibited as a `method of warfare' under Article II(9)(c).''
The British government permits police forces to use CS irritant in ``extreme public order incidents where the chief officer of police judges such action to be necessary because of risk of loss of life or serious injury or widespread destruction of property; or against armed besieged criminals or violently insane persons where a senior officer judges that not to use it would endanger lives'' (CWCB, June, 1994).
David Hall of KPOC television in Ponca City, OK, reported that the most massive use of CS gas in history was against the Branch Davidians in Waco, TX, according to the manufacturer. Hall also stated that the FBI manual forbids the use of CS against rioting prisoners or in other confined areas because the carrier is a volatile alcohol that ignites easily, producing cyanide fumes. Hall said he became interested in CS because of an autopsy report that showed cyanide in the lungs of some Davidians (The Christian Interpreter, quoted in American Information Newsletter, Aug, 1994).
We do not know whether the use of CS in Waco would have been approved by the FBI, the British government, or the UN. However, it is clear that the rules of war do not apply to internal law enforcement. The latter is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Love.
*assuming Non-Threshold Linear hypothesis
``[T]he vanguard of the be-wildered armies of the deer broke down and flooded into the village grazing-grounds and ploughed fields; and the sharp-hoofed, rooting wild pig came with them, and what the deer left, the pig spoiled, and from time to time an alarm of wolves would shake the herds....
``[T]he Brahmin...had prayed to his own gods without answer. It might be, he said, that, unconsciously, the village had offended some one of the gods of the jungle, for, beyond doubt, the jungle was against them. So they sent for the head-man of the nearest tribe of wandering Gonds....They wished to know whether his gods-the Old Gods-were angry with them, and what sacrifices should be offered....The Gond said noth-ing....He knew that when the jungle moves only [Western men-original censored, Ed.] can turn it aside....
``A month later the place was a dimpled mound, covered with soft green young stuff, and by the end of the rains there was the roaring jungle in full blast on the spot that had been under the plough not six months before.''
Rudyard Kipling, Jungle Book II