A nuke exchange could cause two billion to starve, but so
could an asteroid, a mega solar flare, a virus that affects only wheat or
rice. An accidental or intentional
release of weaponized small pox virus could kill twice that many. And
that (or some other engineered biological weapon) is a far more likely to
happen than a nuclear exchange.
Every day over 17,000 children under the age of 5 die from easily
preventable malnutrition and infections and virtually no body but their parents
care.
This ‘study’ is nothing more than a PR project by anti nuke
folks who have no clue regarding the far greater threat of other WMDs. Even with no nukes in the world our future
looks grim primarily because we still think war is an option.
Short of the second coming of Christ there is only one other
possibility for humans averting such a lethal future. Our decision to replace the law of force with
the force of law. A world federation
may seem an impossible dream…but the real naivety is to believe human civilization
can continue without giving up the primacy of national sovereignty (the right
of any nation to do what ever it wants, when ever it wants to whom ever it
wants).
“World
federation is an idea that will not die. More and more people are coming to
realize that peace must be more than an interlude if we are to survive. That
peace is a product of law and order; that law is essential if the force of arms
is not to rule the world. “ Justice William O. Douglas
"Government
is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and
happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any
one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an
incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and
to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity,
and happiness require it." -- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 22,
December 14, 1787