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The Environmental Imperative of Nuclear Disarmament

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Mostafa K. Tolba
Affiliation:
Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme, P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya
Arthur H. Westing
Affiliation:
Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Bergshamra, S-171 73 Solna, Sweden; Adjunct Professor of Ecology, Hampshire College, USA
Nicholas Polunin
Affiliation:
President, The Foundation for Environmental Conservation, 15 Chemin F.-Lehmann, 1218 Grand-Saconnex, Geneva, Switzerland

Extract

The world is threatened as never before by an insane buildup of nuclear weapons some five hundred times as strong in their explosive capacity as the latest estimate of all the chemical explosives that have ever been used throughout history. Leaders in major countries probably know the awful consequences of a nuclear war too well to start one, but the world has still to reckon with possible acts of aggression by other nations or flaring-up through technological failure, mechanical or other accident, malfunctioning or faulty feeding of computers, misinformation, neglect of machines or of constructional faults, terrorist or lunatic action, organized banditry, or the outcome of mere ‘acts of God’!

Type
Main Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1983

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