Somehow we have to get the people in power to understand the mind-boggling irrationality of replacing the whole stockpile rather than reducing it sharply.
The concept discussed in that article might be a good starting point for thinking about the production of nuclear material, which is perhaps the most irrational thing humankind has ever done and is still doing, the suicidal nature of which isn't really grasped by most people. I recall a few years ago when the forest fire was getting close to Los Alamos. Commenters to this blog were talking about a contaminated area being out of commission for a few years.
New Mexico is where nuclear bombs are made and where most of them, from what I've heard, are stored. Nuclear bombs contain several radioactive elements and the worst of them range in half life from 26,000 up to 250,000 years. That's a quarter million years. The oldest civilizations so far haven't lasted 10,000 years. In other words, when we're gone, and when the people who are promising us that that that stuff is safe are long, long, long gone, and when that stuff eventually gets out, it will still be emitting enough radiation to kill all of us several times over.
We've blindly gone ahead and kept producing more and more of that stuff, in reaction to our fear of communism, out the greed of some people who see an opportunity to make some money and finally just out of the need to fear something. Reducing the stockpile of nuclear bombs by 90 percent might be the psychological equivalent of finally meeting your neighbor.
3 comments:
Somehow we have to get the people in power to understand the mind-boggling irrationality of replacing the whole stockpile rather than reducing it sharply.
Try convincing the Republican war machine. Your odds are better seeing Dianna at a casino before she finishes her probation.
The concept discussed in that article might be a good starting point for thinking about the production of nuclear material, which is perhaps the most irrational thing humankind has ever done and is still doing, the suicidal nature of which isn't really grasped by most people. I recall a few years ago when the forest fire was getting close to Los Alamos. Commenters to this blog were talking about a contaminated area being out of commission for a few years.
New Mexico is where nuclear bombs are made and where most of them, from what I've heard, are stored. Nuclear bombs contain several radioactive elements and the worst of them range in half life from 26,000 up to 250,000 years. That's a quarter million years. The oldest civilizations so far haven't lasted 10,000 years. In other words, when we're gone, and when the people who are promising us that that that stuff is safe are long, long, long gone, and when that stuff eventually gets out, it will still be emitting enough radiation to kill all of us several times over.
We've blindly gone ahead and kept producing more and more of that stuff, in reaction to our fear of communism, out the greed of some people who see an opportunity to make some money and finally just out of the need to fear something. Reducing the stockpile of nuclear bombs by 90 percent might be the psychological equivalent of finally meeting your neighbor.
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