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WHAT'S NEW IN INES? |
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No.5/2001 |
Dateline: February 2, 2001 |
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This is the weekly electronic information service of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility
Editor: Tobias Damjanov, e-mail:
INES homepage: http://inesglobal.org
INES International Office
INES Chair: Prof. Armin Tenner
CONTENTS of WNII No. 5/2001
New INES member organisations in Rwanda and Serbia
At the last meeting of the INES Executive Committee, the following organisations have been admitted:
"The SEU TIMES" No 7 (11) - January 2001
"The SEU TIMES" is the electronic newsletter of the "Socio-Ecological Union", one of the Russian INES member organsiations. The latest edition is a special issue devoted to the latest developments in Russia concerning civil and environmental rights and policies. It carries the following:
Editor: Sviatoslav Zabelin < > Previous issues of "The SEU Times" may be found at "The Online Gadfly": http://www.igc.org/gadfly
"Risks and Consequences of Nuclear Weapons Accidents in South Asia"
This is the title of a report (PU/CEES Report No. 326) by INESAP*) member Zia Mian, M. V. Ramana (Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, Princeton University, USA), and R. Rajaraman (School of Physical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi).
Zia Mian has provided the following abstracts: "We analyze the dispersal of plutonium into the atmosphere and consequent biological hazards from nuclear weapon accidents. Such accidents involving nuclear weapons could be caused, for example, by missile and jet fuel fires and explosions and have occurred on a number of occasions to US nuclear weapons. We use the Wedge Model of aerosol dispersal to estimate the amount of plutonium that would be inhaled by a surrounding population and the resulting radiological damage in the form of increased cancer fatalities in the event of such an accident. Our results suggest that such an accident in or near a large South Asian city could lead to about 5000 cancer deaths, and perhaps four times as many. In the event of an accident at a military base at some distance from a medium-sized city, there could be 200 - 800 cancer deaths. Therefore, prudence would dictate that India and Pakistan not deploy nuclear weapons or store them close to aircraft or ballistic missiles. Keeping the weapons disassembled would further reduce the risk of accidental detonation."
A much longer abstracts' version by co-author M.V. Ramana is available upon request from the WNII editor.
The Report is available via: http://www.princeton.edu/cees
*) For new INES members/WNII readers: INESAP is the acronym for: International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation, an international Project Group affiliated to INES.
Mexico: Letter from Alberto Salazar Martínez
Just a comment on information placed by the National Population Office (MA Ortega, El Financiero, 30/jan) about demographic and economic prospectives considering poverty in Mexico: Like never before, in the last 7 years, an effervescent guerrilla activity has risen; there are now at least 33 armed clandestine groups in distinct levels of organization and development in the country; still, 90 per cent of them use mostly graffiti and communiqués to journals to spread propaganda, that's to say: "paper tigers" rather than any military threat are these groups, formed by paysans and workers. Nevertheless they manifest a true representation that many people have already have their fill on the current way they have been hit by others.
The 70% of these groups are in the southern region of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero, the same region where there are the most critical social and economic conditions. Even the very well known EZLN, "Zapatista" movement, has only about 1500 well armed men, but there are thousands more politically active indigenous and paysans: these "jaguars" have improved their fight on the media and internet, and that's how their leader "Marcos" commands now, the most influential movement after the democratic government. One can wonder about the other, growing movements, barely linked to the Zapatistas, and their prospectives to negotiate a sort of peace in the ravines and jungle. Considering the Zapatista strategy, it seems it's not as easy now as in the 70's for the army to eliminate guerrillas "no matter how." So far one can say that they won't wait 60 years for the future. Will they prepare to make war, incidentally, then politics; will they be able to develop a political project?
31 January 2001 Alberto Salazar Martínez < >
CSD9: Summary of government meeting 29 January
Merav Datan, Director of the UN Office of Physicians for Social Responsibility and IPPNW, has recently produced this summary of a government meeting that took place on 29 January 2001 to prepare for the Ninth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD9). The document is available as an rtf-formatted email attachment from the WNII editor.
New BASIC European NMD page
The British American Security Information Council (BASIC) is expanding its European NMD network. In addition to the regular updates of NMD information, BASIC has launched a new section on its website dedicated to the European debate on National Missile Defense (NMD). The new North Atlantic Network page contains a timeline of key events relating to the NMD debate within Europe, background information on the potential use of UK and Greenland sites in the proposed system, and information on organisations researching and campaigning against NMD.
To visit the North Atlantic Network page please go to: http://ww.basicint.org/NMDpageNAN.htm
Please e-mail all comments and suggestions to Mark Bromley: < >
CONFERENCES, MEETINGS, SEMINARS
Cybernetics of Praxis and the Praxis of Cybernetics http://www.asc-cybernetics.org
This conference will explore the "praxis" of cybernetics, that is, its application in any domain. Equally important, it will also explore the cybernetics of praxis, that is, what the awareness of how we do what we do modulates our activity in any domain. This is a conference for the practical and for the visionary. As such we envision it as an event of interest for the practical visionary and the reflective practitioner. We could say that we are concerned with the heart and soul of what we do.
No new or changed addresses.
All INES e-mail addresses and homepages are available upon request from:
< < < < < end of No. 5/2001 what's new in ines < < < < <