ECHOES AND UPDATES

"I have enclosed an article ['Fears rise as ozone levels drop'] from Dr. Hugh Ross' quarterly publication Facts and Faith. I have the highest regard for Dr. Ross as a scientist in search for truth. I also know him to be a fine man of Christian character . . ."

Neither Dr. Ross's character nor his religion are at issue here, but your high regard in him as a scientist is entirely misplaced, for a scientist works by evaluating data, not by parroting fashionable al-legations. You should not have faith in him, or any other scientist, myself included, but only in the deductions made from the data. I always try to give you reasons and data (as well as references) on which I base my conclusions, and it is up to you to check whether they are correctly drawn. Dr Ross's article gives not a single reason for his allegations, nor does he answer any of the objections to the ozone depletion theory that I have frequently given (such as the curve showing the rise of ozone concentration after the last solar minimum). Even if you had never read my conclusions, you should reject an article spewing allegations without backing them up.

DuPont Co., the inventor of the most efficient and formerly cheap CFCs, is pushing ozone depletion propaganda and the abolition of CFCs. There are persistent rumors that the reason for this paradox is the substitute cooling fluids that du Pont is readying and which will cost 30 times as much. The case against such a policy by Lewis du Pont Smith, "Memorandum in the horrific economic and strategic implications of the company's scientifically flawed policy with respect to CFCs and 'ozone depletion' " (Apr. 1991) has belatedly reached me. It contains some interesting articles and curves and is available to AtE readers from L. du Pont Smith, 2020 Walnut St./#W, Philadelphia, PA 19103.

In [AtE Jan 91] I calculated the area needed for a 1,000 MW solar power plant. This is in agreement with a survey by the British Nuclear Forum, which finds the following areas, all in square meters per megawatt: nuclear 870; gas 1,500; coal 2,400; solar 100,000; wind, 1,700,000.

Plant Square miles Acres

------ ------------ -----

Nuclear 0.34 215

Gas 0.58 371

Coal 0.93 593

Solar 39 24,700

Wind 656 419,900

Keep on watching Sweden and its shipwrecked phase-out of nuclear power. The US Committee on Energy Awareness reports that 85% of Swedes feel that nuclear wastes should be buried in their own country, 54% would accept high-level waste disposal in their own community, and 53% feel that Sweden handles waste disposal better than other countries.

Greenpeace has placed an ad in the New York Times scaring tourists by the alleged risks of Colorado, where the Rocky Flats plant is located. In fact, a blue-ribbon panel appointed by Colorado's governor to investigate the risks of Rocky Flats had a very hard time finding any risks for the workers employed there, and found none for the surrounding population. This is one of the well-kept secrets about Rocky Flats. Gov. Romer, Rep. Skaggs and Sen. Wirth, who keep shooting their mouths off about the hor-rific dangers, have clearly not read the report, for even pols do not lie that crudely. The Greenpests have also accused the US of not doing enough to heal the "ecological catastrophe" of the Kuwait oil fires. Why the US, which did more than anyone else to extin-guish the fires? There were no protests by Greenpests when Sad-dam let the oil run into the sea, then set the wells ablaze. It says a lot for the media (NPR, CNN, BBC) that they put such trans-parently phony protests as big items in their "news."

"Radiation in the cockpit" by M. Caldin is scare propaganda by a journal that one would have thought trustworthy, Aviation Safety (11/15/91). It never occurred to the author to ask why pilots and other air crew, who get 5 rems and more per year, do not drop dead like flies, but are probably healthier than the average popula-tion. By hormesis theory and its findings they would be healthier still if they got roughly double that amount.