Dangerous thinking

Posted on May 15, 2010 by Martin Hellman

Eight months ago, a Newsweek cover story argued that Obama Should Learn to Love the Bomb:

We now have 64 years of experience since Hiroshima. It’s striking and against all historical precedent that for that substantial period, there has not been any war among nuclear states.

Six months ago, BP’s Vice President for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, David Rainey, touted offshore drilling’s safety record in Senate hearings:

We also need to remember that OCS [Outer Continental Shelf] development has been going on for the last fifty years, and it has been going on in a way that is both safe and protective of the environment.

A month ago BP’s Deep Horizon drilling rig exploded killing eleven workers and causing an environmental disaster. Enough said.

Martin Hellman
Member National Academy of Engineering
Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University

They deserve a future!

About Martin Hellman

I am a professor at Stanford University, best known for my invention of public key cryptography -- the technology that protects the secure part of the Internet, such as electronic banking. But, since 1982, my primary interest has been how fallible human beings can survive possessing nuclear weapons, where even one mistake could be catastrophic. My latest project is a book, co-written with my wife Dorothie, with the audacious subtitle "Creating True Love at Home & Peace on the Planet." It's on Amazon and a free PDF can be downloaded from its website: https://anewmap.com.

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