Reflections by Comrade Fidel
NUCLEAR WINTER AND PEACE
More than 20,000 nuclear
weapons are in the hands of eight countries —the
The new START treaty,
signed in
The nuclear winter
theory, developed and brought to its current stage by the eminent researcher
and professor from Rutgers University, New Jersey, Dr. Alan Robock
(a modest scientist who prefers to recognize the merits of his colleagues rather
than his own), has proven its veracity.
The theory postulates
that the only way to prevent the use of nuclear weapons is by eliminating them.
Living in a privileged place on the planet, which allows them to enjoy the
highest standards of living and the world’s riches despite the their incredible
waste of non-renewable resources, the American people should be the ones most
interested in the information provided by the scientists. But how much time
does the mass media devote to this task?
According to Robock, “If such weapons did not exist, they could not be
used. And at present, there is no rational argument to use them at all. If they
cannot be used, they must be destroyed and in this way we would protect
ourselves from accidents, mistaken calculations or any bouts of insanity.”
“Computers that used
ultramodern models became the only available laboratory, while historical
events, including cities ravaged by fires caused by earthquakes and war time
bombardments, smoke columns produced by forest fires, and clouds from volcanic
eruptions, became the yardstick for scientific evaluations.”
The proliferation of
nuclear weapons at a time when
While the
“…any country that at
present may be considering the nuclear option must acknowledge that by adopting
such a decision, it would be endangering not only its own population but the
entire world. It is time for the world to once again reflect upon the dangers
of nuclear weapons, and this time follow the path to
peace and eliminate the possibility of a global climate catastrophe induced by
nuclear energy, for the first time since mid-last century.”
"... the use of nuclear weapons in the event of a total attack
against an enemy would be a suicidal action due to anomalous cold and darkness
caused by the smoke from the fires generated by the bomb. In fact, it has
been evidenced that the more nuclear weapons a country possesses, the less
secure it is."
Albert Einstein said:
“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of
thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” Carl Sagan has said that our nuclear arms policy was “a path
where no man thought.”
At the end of the lecture
I asked Professor Alan Robock, “How many people in
the world are familiar with this information?” He replied, “Very few.” I
went on, “In your country, how many?” “The same,” he answered, “it is not
known.”
I had no doubt that this
was the sad reality, and added: “It makes no difference if we know about this,
the world needs to know. Perhaps psychologists need to be brought in to
explain why the masses do not understand.”
“I have an answer —said
the scientist— it’s called denial. It is so horrible, that people do not
want to think about it. It's easier to pretend it does not exist.”
During his nearly
one-hour lecture, aided by charts, figures and photos projected on a screen, Robock’s words were clear, precise and eloquent. And I
said: "What does it mean to raise awareness, which we talk so much
about? What does it mean to create culture? And how discouraging it
must be for you scientists that people don’t even know what you are doing; so
many hours invested."
I told him that back
then, when there was no radio, television or Internet, it was impossible to
broadcast a lecture like this one taking place in
We promised the professor
that we would spread the information he had provided us about the nuclear
winter theory —a topic we know a little about due to our concern over the
possible outbreak of a global nuclear war, a concern that drew us to his
lecture— in a language that even eight-year old Cuban children could
understand.
No other time in human
history comes close to the present. Certainly, if these risks are not
understood by those who make decisions in the heights of the immense power that
science and technology have placed in their hands, the next world war will be
the last one, and it would take, perhaps, tens of millions of years before
new intelligent beings would attempt to write their history.
As chance would have it,
yesterday, September 20, I received news that the Peace Boat passenger ship was to arrive in the
In
a letter written to me by Peace Boat director Yoshioka Tatsuya and
presented by Nao Inoue, the head of the group of
visitors, Tatsuya states: “Our
organization has been working for years, recently in cooperation with the ALBA
countries […] which have clearly expressed their commitment to nuclear
abolition, the prohibition of foreign military bases and peaceful resolutions
for international controversies […] Japan, as you know, the only country that
has endured an atomic bombardment, to this day maintains a pacifist
Constitution that, by virtue of Article 9, formally renounces war and prohibits
the use of force in international disputes…
“A focal issue in our
activism is the removal of foreign military bases: a situation that affects
Including this voyage,
Peace Boat has organized 70 trips around the world beginning in 1983 with the
participation of no less than 40,000 people who have visited more than 100
countries. Their slogan is “Learn from Past Wars to Build a Future of Peace.”
Over 20 years, the Peace
Boat has visited our country 14 times, overcoming obstacles and hurdles imposed
by the
It was a great honor for
me to receive an invitation to meet with a group of the visitors which I
proposed holding at the
Junko Watanabe shared her
dramatic memories, when years after the attack, she saw the images and learned
about the details of the bombing that caused so much suffering in so many
innocent people who had nothing to do with that brutal event.
It was a deliberate act to
terrorize the world with the unnecessary use of a weapon of mass extermination
at a time when the Japanese empire was already defeated. The bomb was dropped,
not on a military installation but rather a defenseless civilian objective. The
images that documented that horrifying crime do not express what the voice of
Junko Watanabe narrated about the events. The meeting was an opportune time to
exchange our points of view and tell our friendly Japanese visitors —ardent
combatants in the struggle to abolish nuclear arms, military bases and war—
about the efforts carried out by our country to stop a nuclear conflict that
could bring about an end to the existence of our species.
Fidel
Castro Ruz