Cutting-edge
assessment of environmental damage caused by military
activity.
In the
aftermath of the Gulf War, experts predicted that the
smoke from burning oil fields would warm the lower
atmosphere throughout South Asia, causing monsoon to
arrive earlier and more forcefully than usual. A huge
typhoon struck Bangladesh on 1 May, killing 100,000
people.
As weaponry
and warfare have become more complex and
sophisticated, so the long-term effects have become
more deadly. Looking not just at the visible
manifestations of damage such as 'scorched earth,'
Rosalie Bertell shows how the space program, Star
Wars research and electromagnetic weapons have
destabilized the natural balance of the earth's
ecosystem causing widespread devastation in
environmental, economic and social terms. She calls
for a new approach to security, rising above national
agendas, to seek global solutions to a global
problem.
A no-nonsense
writer who presents stark facts in an accessible
fashion, Bertell builds her compelling case with the
care and solid methodology which are the hallmarks of
good science. Her findings run from terrifying (the
strategy of U.S. Space Command to fight in space) to
outright bizarre (the U.S. military tossed 350
billion copper needles into orbit to create a
"telecommunications shield" in the early
1960s, and they're still rotating around the planet).
Planet Earth deserves
a wide audience as we begin a make-it-or-break-it
century for the third rock from the sun.
--Matthew Behrens, Quill & Quire
Rosalie
Bertell is an author with an expert grasp of the
biological effects of radiation.
--New Scientist
No-one
who reads it will ever be complacent again.
--The Guardian
Table of Contents
Introduction
Dr Rosalie Bertell's No
Immediate Danger was the first
book to reveal the dangers of low-level radiation
causing international controversy when it was first
published in 1985. Since then she has become a
respected activist and lecturer, testifying before,
the U.S. Congress, the Select Committee on Uranium
Resources and the Sizewell Enquiry in the UK. She has
been involved in the founding of several
organizations, including the International Institute
of Concern for Public Health, in Toronto, and is the
recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, the World
Federalist peace prize, the United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP) Global 500 Award and five
honorary doctorates. She has been selected by the
International Biographical Centre in Cambridge, UK
for inclusion in 2000 Outstanding Women of the
Twentieth Century.
Dr Bertell
is a member of a Roman Catholic religious
congregation, the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart. She
lives in Canada.
272 pages
Paperback ISBN: 1-55164-182-8 $24.99
Hardcover ISBN: 1-55164-183-6 $53.99
Current Affairs /
Military / Popular Science
March 2001
