Ken Keyes, Jr.

“ Well over a hundred scientists working independently in countries such as the United States, Germany and the Soviet Union presented a grim consensus that was summed up by Stanford University Ecologist, Paul Ehrlich, "The two to three billion who are at least able to stand up after the last weapon goes off are going to be—at least in the Northern Hemisphere—starving to death in a dark, smoggy world." ”

“ The very fact that we can exist on this earth—that there is a fauna, animals with eyes on this earth—is based on the existence of the ozone layer that filters out most of the ultraviolet rays of the sun and therefore allows us to survive.
What happens when a nuclear weapon explodes is that a very large number of nitrogen oxides are generated by the radiation that flies out from the explosion. As a matter of fact, a one- megaton weapon will generate 10 molecules of nitrogen oxides. ”

“ We are about to drown in nuclear sewage. We now have about one hundred million gallons of dangerous radioactive effluents that no one knows what to do with. And it's globally increasing at a catastrophic rate. ”

“ The unfortunate situation is that today we are moving—sliding downhill—toward the probability or the likelihood that a nuclear conflict will actually break out—and that somebody will use one of these nuclear weapons in a conflict or perhaps even by accident. ”

“ A smaller amount of exposure sets you up for cancer in twelve or more years.
Even a tiny invisible particle of plutonium is so radioactive that it can cause cancer or alter your genes so that your children may be deformed at birth!
Plutonium has been called "thalidomide forever."
(*Dr. John Gofman is the co-discoverer of uranium-233 and a leading medical researcher. In his 908-page book Radiation and Human Health (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1981) he tells exactly how radiation produces cancer, leukemia and birth defects. ”

“ And, presumably, they will be convinced when all the people, or at least a majority of the people, of our countries are convinced of the unacceptability of the current course of events in which missile is piled on top of missile, in which weapon is piled on top of weapon, and in which doctrines concerning their use are being proliferated not only in the insane superpowers but in other so-called civilized countries as well. ”

“ The World Health Organization has concluded that a major nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union could leave 1.1 billion dead from immediate nuclear effects of the blast, fireball and radiation. Another 1.1 billion would be injured. Since medical facilities would be almost wiped out, most of the injured will die. The ultimate toll within a few months is estimated by this study to be more than 2 billion people or roughly half the world's population. ”

“ The latest word out of the scientific laboratories is that a 20% depletion of the ozone layer will allow enough ultraviolet light to come to earth that it will blind all unprotected eyes. Now, we can all wear glasses, but the animals and the birds will not wear glasses, and they will all be blinded and they will all eventually die. ”

“ Ehrlich points out that even at noon, the earth will be almost dark because of the millions of tons of dirt and debris that the nuclear explosions will throw into the sky. He points out that rampaging forest and city fires may burn 50% to 60% of the United States and send huge amounts of smoke into the sky. It will take many months to settle back to earth. Scientists estimate that temperatures in the plains of North America and the steppes of Central Asia may drop as much as 40C (72F) — it could literally freeze in July. ”

“ If present trends continue, the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink will soon be contaminated with enough radioactive pollutants to pose a potential health hazard far greater than any plague humanity has ever experienced. Unknowingly exposed to these radioactive poisons, some of us may be developing cancer right now. Others may be passing damaged genes, the basic chemical units which transmit hereditary characteristics, to future generations. ”

“ I can think of nothing else that is a more massive ecological dislocation — to use a mild word. The entire ecosystem will collapse. Because if we don't have insects, for example, to pollinate the flowers, we won't have fruit . ”

“ With our atmosphere enshrouded in nuclear dust carried up into the stratosphere, sunlight would not sustain photosynthesis, according to Joseph Berry, noted plant physiologist, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. ”

“ To avoid further harm to ourselves and our children, the people of the world must somehow avoid further nuclear insanity.*
(*A leakage on September 11, 1957, and again on May 11, 1969, in the AEC Rocky Flats plutonium plant released plutonium near Denver, Colorado. There has been a 24% increase in cancer in men and a 10% increase in women in the portion of the Denver metropolitan area nearest to the Rocky Flats plutonium processing plant.)
One million tons of TNT is known as a megaton. A grand total of over three megatons of nonnuclear explosives were used in World War II from 1941 to 1945. ”

“ The United States Department of Agriculture in Food, The Yearbook of Agriculture 1959, p. 118, reported that strontium-90 from the United States and Russian atomic bomb tests had scattered radioactive strontium- 90 over the entire earth. It was first detected in animal bones, dairy products and soil in 1953. It is now in the bodies of all human beings regardless of their age or where they live. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol. ”