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April
1971
megatons
(MrLLIONS
of tons) of TNT.
That's
50
BJLLION TONS
of explosive
force-
oc
an overkill factor of
14
for
every man, woman and child on the
earth.
One scientist, Dr. Linus Pauling,
estimated that there were
500,000
megatons of TNT in the world nuclear
stockpile, averaging out to 150 tons for
every person on earth - a theoretical
overkill of 150 times!
But what's "overkill ?"
Can you
MORE
than kill someone?
From 10 tons to 150 tons of TNT is
reserved just for you, and for each of
your own loved ones, and for everybody
else, and for all of their loved ones.
Does more than a few ounces or so
make any real difference?
Eager New Nuclear Nations
At least three major nations other
than the Soviet Union and the United
States possess the bomb. Britain, France,
and Red China are in the business
of manufacturing lissionable material.
Another seven nations, Canada, India,
Israel, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland,
West Germany, could produce nuclear
weapons in a very short time. Another
FORTY
nations, in addition to the "big
five" of the nuclear age, have nuclear
reactors, whose immediate by-product is
plutonium - essential ingredient for a
nuclear bomb.
By 1980, the present non-nuclear
nations of the world will be producing
sufficient plutonium to build about 100
small atoro bombs each week.
Soon, then, the nuclear nightmare
will take on ever more imagination-defy–
ing proportions, until the world, not–
withstanding the presence or absence of
life elsewhere, could represeot a threat
almost large enough to challenge a
huge, exploding star.
The mindlessness of all this, the stu–
pidity of pursuing endlessly a course
which can only end in apocalyptic hor–
ror, is more than bestial. For beasts
exercise, among their instincts, the
strong drive for self-preservation. Man's
devilish death march delies even that
most basic of instincts - shrugging off
the very meaning of human life.
For all our calls for peace - we
diligently, eagerly pursue the business
The
PLAIN
TRUTH
of war, or revel in the technology that
directly results from such pursuit.
But nuclear power is only one of the
severa! methods for cosmocidal mad–
ness. Botulinus, a biological agent, if
equally dispersed via the jetstreams,
ocean currents, or in strategic areas on
carth, could wipe out all humanity in
six short hours.
By using only 10 aircraft, if they suc–
cessfully arrived over target areas, an
enemy could kili or incapacitate thirty
percent of the American population with
biological warfare agents. One fourth
of one ounce of a particular virus could
infect every man, woman and child in
the British Isles.
Then, there is the biological time
bomb - population versus insufficient
foods, with resultant disease epidemics
in the offing. Then there is the specter
of famine, and of dread plague, and of
earthqllake, lire, typhoon, ffood , and
storm. The elements around
liS
rage
with indignant groaning at the madness
of mankind. Üllr world groans - it
reels drunkenly along an llncertain,
insane course, talking artificially of
peace, and smacking its lips in expectancy
at each new technologically oriented
artífice which results from the search for
the more horrible war.
Now, it's time to seek God. Only
God can save this world now - save it
from itself - from insane, even acci–
dental, destruction. O God, save us
from ourselves; save us from our smoke–
choked, lilthy, stifling cities; from our
chemically poisoned, sadly depleted,
artifically fed farms; from our stench–
ridden, sludge-filled, polluted lakes and
rivers; from our sterile, computerized,
dehumanized, death-searchir.g society;
from our hatreds, jealousies, and greed;
from our bigotry, prejudice and ego–
tistical defiance; save us from each
other.
Save
liS
from ourselves.
... Meanwhile
With a faint sigh of escaping bub–
bles, the long black shape slid almost
soundlessly beneath the swells, its
nose swiftly nudging bits of oil sludge,
filmy slick, and unseen chemicals
among the ffotsam and jetsam of the off–
shore ocean. Frightened, the wide-eyed
little fish darted away, jerking with
effort as its mercury-laden body shud–
dered with unnamed strain.
The captain sighed, snapped scope
handles up, and tiredly issued the same
orders of four days previously, when he
had made the same precise turn in the
same quadraot of ocean, maintaining
the same speed, with the big, threat–
ening, bottle-like missiles pointed in
computerized memory at San Francisco.
A hundred miles away, maintaining
12,000 feet, the big patrol bomber
droned along, its crew routioely scan–
ning their radar screens, sipping black
coffee.
Near AJbllquerque, the Colonel was
again listening to the magazine reports,
induding three carloads of new arrivals,
now "safely" tucked away into their
underground vaults. He sported a new
cast on his left ankle, testimony to an
icy slope and a bad fall at Taos. The
bent door had been fixed during his
brief absence.
At Norad, the routine business of
instant global communication went on
- if with more precision and alertoess
- spurred on, now, by the public
outcries, and threatening congressional
investigations.
The submarine lurched gently, bring–
ing sudden tension to the eyes of the
captain and crew alike. Quickly ques–
tioning orders brought reports from all
sectors. "Mild collision." "No dam–
age aft." "Engines operating normally."
"Ail secure."
It
must have been one of the Califor–
nia Gray Whales, migrating southward
through these shallower waters.
The big gray gasped, its giant, barn–
acle-encrusted body heaving more rap–
idly, now, through the dark Pacific
water, its trips to the surface for air
coming oftener. Ahead, the dimly
sensed shoals told of the bleak beaches
of the channel island. The gray
struggled into the shallows, throwing
itself ponderously into the surf, to !ay
shapelessly, sides gently heaving, on the
surf-pounded sand.
In the hazy, early morning, the shrill,
raucous cry of the gulls told of the find.
The first gull landed, standing beside
the sightlessly staring
eye.
O