Friday, July 27, 2007
Last week the Bush administration delivered the U.S. Nuclear Weapons
Strategy to Congress in the form of a document called Maintaining
Deterrence in the 21st Century. It's an urgent call to get back into the
bomb-building business. Deterrence is a euphemism for retaliation - after
all, nobody takes the Bush missile defense seriously. The White House
acknowledges that there are no known problems with the thousands of
warheads in our stockpile. None should be expected for 100 years
according to a study by the JASON advisory group. To be absolutely
certain, however, the White House says we will have to resume underground
testing - unless Congress funds the Reliable Replacement Warhead. This is
a new wrinkle in nuclear blackmail - the administration has elected to
blackmail Congress. The result of testing would be a wave of tests around
the world. Predictably, North Korea is angrily charging the U.S. with a
double standard, just as diplomacy seemed to have made progress in getting
them to shut down their plutonium production reactor.
Actually, Spirit and Opportunity, are simply hunkered down on short
rations with a massive dust storm cutting their sunlight. NASA's problems
are with human astronauts. According to Aviation Week, an independent
panel studying astronaut health reported that on at least two occasions
unnamed astronauts had been launched into space in spite of being
crocked. No word on whether they were wearing diapers. Meanwhile, there
is a report of sabotage to a computer on Space Shuttle Endeavor, which is
set for launch to the ISS on Aug 7.
Donald Kennedy's editorial in today's Science points out that we have
passed the tipping point in the climate controversy. He rightly
attributes consensus to the "relentless progress of science." Although
most deniers attribute any climate change to solar variations, they never
call for launching DSCOVR to monitor Earth's albedo. The deniers, Kennedy
says, "retreat to the safety of the Wall Street Journal op-ed page."
They've been there all along of course. Who could forget the 1998
petition drive headed by physicist Frederick Seitz opposing the Kyoto
Accord? (WN 13 Mar 98) The petition
card was accompanied by a WSJ op-ed that described increased levels of CO2
in the atmosphere as "a wonderful and unexpected gift of the industrial
revolution." If Rupert Murdock takes over the WSJ, don't look for
improvement.
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