Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 8/7/84; site ucbvax.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!wall From: wall@ucbvax.ARPA (Steve Wall) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Politics, morals and nukes Message-ID: <2529@ucbvax.ARPA> Date: Sat, 13-Oct-84 23:11:47 EDT Article-I.D.: ucbvax.2529 Posted: Sat Oct 13 23:11:47 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 15-Oct-84 01:41:25 EDT References: <394@wucs.UUCP> <90@whuxk.UUCP> <2730@ucbcad.UUCP> <284@whuxl.UUCP> <2522@ucbvax.ARPA> <2740@ucbcad.UUCP> Organization: University of California at Berkeley Lines: 45 I don't know much of the details about the nuclear arms race, mostly because I get fed up with arguments like "they have 10,000 type A bombs and we only have 6,000 type A bombs..", but someone mentioned whether people would survive a worldwide nuclear war. The claim was that some people would survive, which could be true, BUT: If some people did survive, the world that they would find themselves living in would hardly resemble the world we live in now. Clearly, the chance of starvation from lack of food and the problems that would arise when the atmosphere is weakend by the nuclear exchange would prove disasterous for those people who did survive. Our water would be poisoned, our land would be poisoned, and the farming equipment that we use for cultivation would be destroyed during the exchange. Especially with our dependence on international trade and exchange patterns that currently exist for much of our food, would not our food supply be threatened, if not destroyed? Also, on a more sociological approach. Do we really think that our current type of government would still be intact following a nuclear exchange? It seems clear that most of our government institutions would be destroyed, and the organization that our government is dependent and based on would be gone. I can't imagine there being an emergency session of Congress called the day after a nuclear exhcange! Our entire government would be in shambles. There would be chaos everywhere. And lastly, those areas that were victims of the nuclear exchange would be useless for thousands of years. Can we live without the San Jouquin (sp?) Valley and the Midwest breadbasket? What about the livestock that is subjected to radiation? Clearly our electrical, gas, and communications networks would be damaged or destroyed. Like I said above, I don't claim to be an expert on the nuclear issue. These thoughts come from more common sense (my common sense anyway). I don't trust theories or predictions as to the result of a nuclear war because there are too many factors that cannot be quantified and there is plenty of room for error. The only way to be safe is to never let a nuclear war happen. What was that quote from Einstein when the first atomic bomb was set off? Something like, "Everything has changed except man's way of thinking." Steve Wall wall@ucbarpa ..!ucbvax!wall