clyde@ut-ngp.UUCP (Clyde W. Hoover) (11/23/83)
What scares me worse than the possibilty of nuclear war is the potential use of chemical and/or biological weapons. Imagine the release of a short-lived (say 2-3 days) virus that incapacitates and kills. The U.S. and/or U.S.S.R. could blanket the other with such nasties which would kill as many people as horribly as using nukes, with the side benefit of not turning the area into a radioactive wasteland. While not as quick nor as immediate as nukes, a war so fought would devastate the population of the Earth, and, if we were very lucky, also destroy the planetary ecology, all without Sagan's "nuclear winter". Imagine a slow wave of death sliding across America, borne on the winds. Done, perhaps, during the holidays when much of the apprartus of government is semi-idle and distracted. Think of contaminated lakes and resevoirs, polluted food crops and livestock. Even if the death toll could be held to a minimum, the economic effect would be devastating. And you thought NUCLEAR war was bad enough... Shouter-To-Dead-Parrots (Clyde Hoover) eagle!ut-ngp!clyde ihnp4!ut-ngp!clyde -- Clyde W. Hoover @ Univ. of Texas Computation Center Austin, Texas clyde@ut-ngp.{UUCP,ARPA} clyde@ut-sally.{UUCP,ARPA} ihnp4!ut-ngp!clyde
mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (11/28/83)
What scares me worse than the possibilty of nuclear war is the potential use of chemical and/or biological weapons. Imagine the release of a short-lived (say 2-3 days) virus that incapacitates and kills. The U.S. and/or U.S.S.R. could blanket the other with such nasties which would kill as many people as horribly as using nukes, with the side benefit of not turning the area into a radioactive wasteland. ============= When you are talking about the death of civilization, it doesn't matter much which is worse. But at least biological or chemical warfare leaves the prospect of survival for SOME higher forms of life, and possibly even some human life. Nuclear war provides little such prospect, so it ought to be considered worse. Perhaps the life-forms around the black smokers in the deep Pacific might survive a nuclear war, and might evolve intelligence again in half-a-billion years, but that doesn't make me too much happier about nuclear war. -- Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utcsrgv!dciem!mmt