Abstract
The potential Iranian threat ot nuclear weapon delivery against the continental United States should not be viewed through the distorted lens ot the Bush administration's priority to deploy a so-called defense against intercontinental ballistic missiles. Nor should we put confidence in an arbitrary distinction between an Iranian civil program and a “nuclear weapon program.”
Although Iran's supreme leader has stated that Iran won't build nuclear weapons because of religious prohibitions, new interpretations of religious proscriptions and demands may lead to a nuclear weapon capability at a rate determined by capabilities and not current professed intentions.
Home/Roundtable
Population and Climate Change
Human population continues to grow by more than 75 million people annually. Since the first Earth Day in 1970, per-capita emission rates have remained steady at about 1.2 metric tons of carbon per person per year. Unfortunately, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol has had little measurable effect on per-capita emissions, even in the countries that have agreed to national targets. More than any other factor, population growth drives rising carbon emissions, and the U.S. Census Bureau and United Nations both project that global population, currently 6.6 billion, will surpass 9 billion before 2050. The implication is that one of the best strategies for reducing future greenhouse gas emissions is population stabilization, as quickly as can be achieved by noncoercive means.
Home/Columnists/Hugh Gusterson
Misadventures at the Energy Department
My attempt to see Thomas D'Agostino speak was a trivial event, but it encapsulates everything that's wrong with the Energy Department. There was disagreement among Energy employees on the basic rules of admission, so that whether you got in depended on which employee you asked; a rule against admitting foreigners that, in the absence of any checking mechanism, was left to the foreigners themselves to enforce; two guards who had no idea what was happening in the building they guarded, and who were clearly terrified of exercising discretion; one guard who didn't know what a green card was; and an event that was being broadcast by satellite and over an 888-number but was closed to foreigners in the flesh.
Gordon Adams
Some defense analysts think Washington needs to continue spending money on the military at record levels. But it's an assertion unsupported by any strategy or need.
Laura H. Kahn
The play in virtual game worlds is fantasy, but the players are iving, breathing human beings whose behavior during an online pandemic could give insight into disease spread.
Pavel Podvig
Prideful talk of new missiles, submarines, and bombers actually reveals weak Russian leadership and a stubborn military-industrial complex that's preparing to fight yesterday's wars.
James E. Hansen
Unless we drastically reduce emissions from coal power plants, all other efforts to stabilize climate change will be nearly fruitless.
Lawrence Krauss
What are the most important issues of the presidential campaign? They're the ones no one is talking about-nuclear weapons and nuclear power. An analysis of what candidates have said and what it means.