Conference gleanings
A couple of interesting stories from the conference I attended:
When the copper industry first built a large-scale smelter in a rural area, ranchers began to complain about large numbers of animals dying. The company tried for a while to claim they weren't to blame, but it became clear that arsenic from the smelting was escaping in the smoke and then settling and killing animals. The copper industry developed scrubbers to remove arsenic from the smoke, and started selling that arsenic as a wood preservative and pesticide. Later that was proved to be unsafe, and today there is talk that it may be better simply not to mine copper ore that has a high arsenic content. (Timothy Lecain, Montanta State University)
The first Earth Day in 1970 made a bigger difference to public culture than those who write the history of environmental activists often recognize. One company ran a series of ads saying
"Dear Mother Nature: Drop Dead" into early 1970, then replaced it with ads claiming a more natural approach. (Thomas Jundt, Brown University)
Facts about War
From
an antiwar source:
Do you know enough to justify going to war with Iraq?
1. What percentage of the world's population does the U.S. have?
[Less than 6%]
2. What percentage of the world's wealth does the U.S. have?
[50%]
3. Which country has the largest oil reserves?
[Saudi Arabia]
4. Which country has the second largest oil reserves?
[Iraq]
5. How much is spent on military budgets a year worldwide?
[$900+ billion]
6. How much of this is spent by the U.S.?
[ 50%]
7. What percent of US military spending would ensure the essentials of life to everyone in the world, according the UN?
[10% (that's about$40 billion, the amount of funding initially requested to fund our retaliatory attack on Afghanistan)]
8. How many people have died in wars since World War II?
[86 million]
9. How long has Iraq had chemical and biological weapons?
[Since the early 1980's]
10. Did Iraq develop these chemical & biological weapons on their own?
[No, the materials and technology were supplied by the US government, along with Britain and private corporations]
11. Did the US government condemn the Iraqi use of gas warfare against Iran?
[No]
12. How many people did Saddam Hussein kill using gas in the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988?
[5,000]
13. How many western countries condemned this action at the time?
[0]
14. How many gallons of agent Orange did America use in Vietnam?
[17million]
15. Are there any proven links between Iraq and September 11th terrorist attack?
[No]
16. What is the estimated number of civilian casualties in the Gulf War?
[35,000]
17. How many casualties did the Iraqi military inflict on the western forces during the Gulf War ?
[0]
18. How many retreating Iraqi soldiers were buried alive by U.S. tanks with ploughs mounted on the front?
[6,000]
19. How many tons of depleted uranium were left in Iraq and Kuwait after the Gulf War?
[40 tons]
20. What according to the UN was the increase in cancer rates in Iraq between 1991 and 1994?
[700%]
21. How much of Iraq's military capacity did America claim it had destroyed in 1991?
[80%]
22. Is there any proof that Iraq plans to use its weapons for anything other than deterrence and self defense?
[No]
23. Does Iraq present more of a threat to world peace now than 10 years ago?
[No]
24. How many civilian deaths has the Pentagon predicted in the event of an attack on Iraq in 2002/3?
[10,000]
25. What percentage of these will be children?
[Over 50%]
26. How many years has the U.S. engaged in air strikes on Iraq?
[11years]
27. Was the U.S and the UK at war with Iraq between December 1998 and September 1999?
[No]
28. How many pounds of explosives were dropped on Iraq between December 1998 and September 1999?
[20 million lbs.]
29. How many years ago was UN Resolution 661 introduced, imposing strict sanctions on Iraq's imports and exports?
[12 years]
30. What was the child death rate in Iraq in 1989 (per 1,000 births)?
[38]
31. What was the estimated child death rate in Iraq in 1999 (per 1,000 births)?
[131 (that's an increase of 345%)]
32. How many Iraqis are estimated to have died by October 1999 as a result of UN sanctions?
[1.5 million]
33. How many Iraqi children are estimated to have died due to sanctions since 1997?
[750,000]
34. Did Saddam order the inspectors out of Iraq?
[No]
35. How many inspections were there in November and December 1998?
[300]
36. How many of these inspections had problems?
[5]
37. Were the weapons inspectors allowed entry to the Ba'ath Party HQ?
[Yes]
38. Who said that by December 1998, "Iraq had in fact, been disarmed to a level unprecedented in modern history."
[Scott Ritter, UNSCOM chief]
39. In 1998 how much of Iraq's post 1991 capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction did the UN weapons inspectors claim to have discovered and dismantled?
[90%]
40. Is Iraq willing to allow the weapons inspectors back in?
[Yes]
41. How many UN resolutions did Israel violate by 1992?
[Over 65]
42. How many UN resolutions on Israel did America veto between 1972 and 1990?
[30+]
43. How many countries are known to have nuclear weapons?
[8]
44. How many nuclear warheads does Iraq have?
[0]
45. How many nuclear warheads does the US have?
[Over 10,000]
46. Which is the only country to use nuclear weapons?
[The US]
47. How many nuclear warheads does Israel have?
[Over 400]
48. Who said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"?
[Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]
